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The researchers also found that the new coronavirus looks more like a cancer in its functioning than other viral diseases.
A study by researchers at the University of San Francisco, Cell, says that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19 disease, can shed “tentacles” into damaged cells that allow the infection to spread rapidly. in the body.
According to Professor Nevan Corgan, who led the study, “bad threads” pierce the cell cover and the infection is transmitted from one cell tangled in such tentacles to another, according to The Financial Times.
“Our hypothesis is that such action accelerates the spread of infection,” said the scientist.
The study authors discovered that damaged cells use their transmission filaments, filipodia, to infect neighboring, still healthy, cells, turning them into certain types of “zombies,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The ability to infect cells in this way distinguishes SARS-CoV-2 from the way other viruses that cause HIV or smallpox work.
Suggests the use of anticancer drugs.
Once found this, the researchers concluded that Covid-19 could be used to fight drugs, many of which are used to treat cancer. They also conducted experiments on monkeys and then tested some drugs on lung cells from people affected by the virus.
The LA Times reports that a total of seven medications have been identified, including silmitasertib or hilteritinib, which have recently been identified as suitable for the treatment of patients with leukemia and may be adapted for the treatment of coronavirus complications.
In addition to the pandemic that has already rocked the world, 2020 could bring a biblical tragedy: Giant swarms of locusts have been observed in the regions of southern East Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and even Russia. They are destroying crops in large areas, from Tanzania, Kenya, and Somalia to Pakistan, India, and China.
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