Cell Stem Cell: How smoking exacerbates the infection of the new coronavirus in the lungs

November 18, 2020 // -- In a recent study, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, used models of respiratory tissue produced by human stem cells to determine how smoking exacerbates SARS-CoV-2 infections in respiratory tissue.
The study, led by scientists at UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and published in the journal cell stem cell, will help researchers better understand the risks of COVID-19 in smokers and could provide information for developing new treatment strategies to help reduce the chances of serious illness in smokers.
(Photo Source?) Www.pixabay.com) Smoking is one of the most common causes of lung disease, including lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and most demographic studies of COVID-19 patients show an increased risk of serious infection and death among current smokers.
but the reason is not entirely clear.
To help understand how smoking affects SARS-CoV-2 infections at the cellular and molecular levels, Dr. Brigitte Gomperts worked with Vaithilingaraja Arumaswami, an associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology, and Kathrin Plath, a professor of biochemistry, to reproduce what happens when current smokers have respiratory infections like SARS-CoV-2.
the team used a platform called gas-liquid interface culture, which grows from human channel stem cells and closely replicates the behavior and function of the gas channel in humans.
the respiratory tract, which draws air from the nose and mouth into the lungs, is the body's first line of defense against air-borne pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and smoke.
the gas-liquid interface culture used in the study was grown from respiratory stem cells extracted from the lungs of five young, healthy, non-smoking tissue providers.
to replicate the effects of smoking, the researchers exposed the gas culture to cigarette smoke for three minutes a day for four days.
has been used to study lung disease for more than a decade and has been shown to mimic changes in the respiratory tract of smokers," said Gomperts, a researcher at the university.
, the researchers compared the two groups using live SARS-CoV-2 viruses to infect smoke-exposed tissue and the same tissue that was not exposed.
were exposed to smoke cells, the researchers saw two to three times more infections.
further, the researchers found that smoking causes more serious SARS-CoV-2 infections, at least in part by blocking interferon signal activity.
interferon plays a key role in the body's early immune response by triggering infected cells to produce proteins to attack the virus, gaining additional support from the immune system and alerting uninscinded cells to prepare to fight the virus.
() Source: Study reveals how smoking directors COVID-19 infected in airways Original source: Arunima Purkayastha et al, Direct exposure SARS-CoV-2 and smoke smoke increases infected severity and alters stem the cell-derived repair, Cell Stem Cell (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2020.11.010