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A lot has changed over the past few months. Can you explain how the coronavirus (also known as SARS-Co-V-2) infects the body and how it can be stopped?

Biology/Immunity Infection and Spread

A: We love this brilliant series of illustrations on how the coronavirus takes hold in the body as well as potential drug and vaccine targets. Here is a quick summary of what you will see.

-The virus enters cells through the ACE2 receptor and then replicates and breaks out—>Once it breaks out, it can either die, infect other cells, or get exhaled into the air

-Potential drug (therapeutic targets) mechanisms: blocking the virus from entering cells, stopping the virus from replicating and spreading, making the virus defective so that it doesn’t spread, and/or dampening the immune response to the virus

-Potential vaccines strategies: Use weakened virus, inactivated virus or pieces of virus to generate immune response; or, employ genetic mapping to insert viral segments into DNA, RNA, or a safe virus to ultimately generate an immune response

Happy reading and we hope all of you have a safe Sunday….

…And of course, a very Happy Father’s Day to all the father figures out there!

#StayHome #StaySafe #coronavirus #SciAm

Links:

Scientific American