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The Semmelweis University team, in collaboration with National Security Laboratory staff, was the first to investigate the structure of an active infectious coronavirus, the university’s website reports.
According to the results, the spikes that cover the surface of the pathogen are extremely mobile and the virus itself is self-healing and may be one of the most resistant biological organisms known to man.
The virus has also been shown to be easily compressed, but its shape recovers like a rubber ball and its structure is not damaged by physical impact.
Although experts have been studying the new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) since its discovery, there are still many questions about the pathogen. HE Dr. Miklós Kellermayer, a working group led by the Dean of the Semmelweis University Faculty of General Medicine, studied the structure of the coronavirus with researchers from the National Safety Laboratory of the National Center for Public Health. The surface of the SARS-COV-2 particles was scanned using a special technique, an atomic force microscope. According to Dr. Miklós Kellermayer, the virus’s mechanical and self-healing properties can ensure adaptation to a wide range of environmental conditions, which can also contribute to its unusually high infectivity.
The study by experts from the University of Semmelweis is also unique because all the articles on the virus that have appeared in the literature so far were performed on an inactivated, chemically treated or frozen sample. However, Dr. Miklós Kellermayer and his team studied the active and infectious coronavirus; in addition to the protocol developed for this measurement, the atomic force microscope (AFM) provided an opportunity. The Semmelweis University instrument is used to study the topographic structure and nanomechanical properties of atoms, molecules and cells.
The Hungarian research team pierced the SARS-CoV-2 particle about 80 nanometers wide with an even smaller needle. The tip of the needle was pressed from the top to the bottom of the virus, causing it to compress and then immediately bounced when the needle was removed.
This was repeated a hundred times in the same organism, but the virus remained almost completely intact.
All of this proves that SARS-CoV-2 may be one of the most resistant and physically resistant viruses known to man.
The team also studied other properties of the body’s structure. Viruses generally become vulnerable when they leave the host, but SARS-CoV-2 can remain infectious for long periods of time even if it adheres to the surface of objects. In this, the flexibility of the beaks can also help the pathogen. The results of previous studies differed as to how many crown-shaped peaks cover the outside of the virus: for example, according to a study by the University of Cambridge, about 24, while the Max Planck Institute estimated 40. The organism studied by Hungarian researchers had 61 peaks, dr. According to Miklós Kellermayer, this also shows that the variability of the virus structure may be greater than expected.
Hungarian researchers also analyzed the proteins that make up the peaks: the crown-shaped components oscillated at such a high frequency under the physical impact of the needle that an atomic force microscope capable of taking 300 images per second could only take a blurry image. from them. The researchers said that this high-speed movement could help the virus more easily find and connect to host cells. The heat resistance of SARS-CoV-2 was also studied: according to their results, the virus hardly changes when exposed to 90 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes: it loses only some of its peaks, but its structure remains intact. This may explain why it remained infectious in warm climate countries or despite summer weather.
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