Why is the new crown virus the "killer" of the elderly?

Authoritative data shows that the average age of deaths from new crowns worldwide is over 70 years old!

Compared with young people, why are older people more likely to die after being infected with the new crown virus? On December 8, "Nature Cell Biology" published the research results of a joint team of Chinese scientists to help us answer this question

"In layman's terms, the invasion of the new

Virus invasion, signs of aging "rise up"

Clinically, the main cause of death for patients with new coronary disease is respiratory failure caused by severe lung injury

What exactly does the new coronavirus destroy in the lungs? In order to clarify the situation, the joint research team of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the First Affiliated Hospital of the Army Military Medical University, and the Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a "cell by cell" or even "cell by cell molecule" on the lung tissue of the autopsy samples of elderly patients with new crowns.

Combining pathology, proteomics, and high-throughput single-cell nuclear transcriptome technologies, the research team analyzed the pathological characteristics of 28 different cell types including four main cell types, including lung epithelial cells, endothelial cells, stromal cells, and immune cells.

"We found that the lung tissue cells of elderly patients with new coronary disease showed a more

What are the external manifestations of "old" lung cells?

"We see the apoptosis and shedding of lung epithelial cells

Stalling, sluggishness, apoptosis, shedding.

Cyclic blows make the situation worse

"The lung tissues of the elderly may suffer a cyclical attack by the virus

In addition, based on bioinformatics analysis, the team found that a large number of alveolar epithelial transitional cells have accumulated in lung tissue samples from new coronary pneumonia

Studies have found that the virus entering the lung tissue will also accelerate lung fibrosis (a manifestation of lung aging)

The three major strategies of opening the "city gate", cutting off the "support", and increasing cell fibrosis, the virus enters the lung cells of the elderly, which has caused the elderly to suffer "even worse

A new link between aging and infection

"We found that there is a significant correlation between aging and new

These scientific researches innovatively associate the mechanism of aging with the infection of the new coronavirus, bringing a new perspective for humans to understand the pathogenic mechanism of the new coronavirus

The research system analyzed the disease changes of multiple cell types in lung tissues of patients with new coronary pneumonia, and identified the accelerated aging phenotype of lungs of patients with new coronary pneumonia for the first time.

"Analysis of lung accelerated aging is the key pathology, which can further guide the intervention of new coronary pneumonia

According to reports, the research was carried out by the team of Academician Bian Xiuwu of the First Affiliated Hospital (Southwest Hospital) of the Army Military Medical University (Third Military Medical University), the research group of Liu Guanghui and Qu Jing of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the research group of Zhang Weiqi, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
A number of teams cooperated to complete the project, and were funded by projects from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Beijing
.