Lung cell images show how intense a coronavirus infection can be

[micropage7]

Coronavirus particles (red) overwhelm a human lung cell (blue and purple) in this artificially colored scanning electron micrograph. Mucus is highlighted in green.
EHRE LAB/UNC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE


New closeup views of lung cells show just how prolifically the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can replicate once it infiltrates the respiratory tract.

In the lab, pediatric pulmonologist Camille Ehre and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill infected cells that line the airways in the lungs with SARS-CoV-2, waited 96 hours and then snapped scanning electron micrograph images of the virus-laden cells.

“Once a cell is infected, it is completely taken over by the virus, producing an astonishing number of viruses,” Ehre says. In a lab dish of about 1 million human cells, she says the viral load can skyrocket from about one thousand infectious viruses to 10 million in just two days. The new images were published September 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Cells that line the respiratory tract and their hairlike protrusions called cilia help clear airways of inhaled particles and pathogens. These types of cells are also specifically targeted by the coronavirus. Once infected, they churn out “astronomical numbers” of viral particles, Ehre says, potentially propelling the particles deeper into the lungs, which can cause pneumonia, or out into the air where they can infect others.

“These images of airway cells jam-packed with viruses make a strong case for the use of masks to limit SARS-CoV-2 transmission whether an individual has symptoms or not,” Ehre says. Widespread mask wearing could help contain such explosive viral replication from spreading beyond a single individual.

Coronavirus particles (small, spiky spheres) coat a human lung cell and its hairlike cilia in this scanning electron micrograph (left; higher-resolution view at right).C. EHRE/NEJM 2020

SARS-CoV-2 virions (red). EHRE LAB, UNC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

A cell is infected by SARS-CoV-2 particles (red; artificially coloured).Credit: Dr Katherine Davies, National Infection Service/SPL

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-infection-lung-cell-images

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article245754170.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00502-w

 

[R-T-B]

I had covid in the last winter (only confirmed recently). It was a nasty thing that made you feel like you could not breathe, and to this day I feel I have reduced lung capacity.

I have a feeling it took more than a few years off my life.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

Those images are incredible. Terrifying, but incredible

And @R-T-B I'm sending lots of airhugs your way!

 

[micropage7]

I had covid in the last winter (only confirmed recently). It was a nasty thing that made you feel like you could not breathe, and to this day I feel I have reduced lung capacity.

I have a feeling it took more than a few years off my life.

and it is far from closing the book since now we have the new corona virus
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00502-w

 

[mtcn77]

You can continue living with 10% of your lung capacity, however the question is airway clearage which covid blocks and halting the disease progress because your lungs are specialized organs, you cannot regenerate them once disease has remissed.

 

[R-T-B]

You can continue living with 10% of your lung capacity

You first.

 

[mtcn77]

You first.

Cute, but misguided to be going against the physiology.

 

[mtcn77]

These aren't lung cells by the way, these are mucosal skin cells, they are the ones with cilia clearing the passage ways.
Lung cells don't have these beautiful anemone thingies...

 

[R-T-B]

Lung cells don't have these beautiful anemone thingies...

Yes, lungs do. It's how it improves surface area. They are the cillia you are talking about.

Debating whether or not they are lung cells when they are in the lungs is pendantic.

 

[mtcn77]

Yes, lungs do. It's how it improves surface area. They are the cillia you are talking about.

Debating whether or not they are lung cells when they are in the lungs is pendantic.

How have you not won the Nobel, yet?
You can't even spell 'cilia'.

 

[Aquinus]

With COVID being a vascular disease, it can do a heck of a lot more than just damage your lungs. It amazes me that some people don't take it seriously.

 

[mtcn77]

With COVID being a vascular disease, it can do a heck of a lot more than just damage your lungs. It amazes me that some people don't take it seriously.

It is vasculitic, if we are talking about the vessel lining injury. Pretty serious stuff. Think like "STROKE" level serious.

 

[R-T-B]

How have you not won the Nobel, yet?
You can't even spell 'cilia'.

What on earth, man. You can't form a sentence that everyone can understand half the time and are worried that I put one too many "l"'s in cilia...

I was joking about the lung capacity thing. You can chill.

 

[mtcn77]

What on earth, man. You can't form a sentence half the time and are worried that I put one too many "l"'s in cilia...

Yes, when some rough diamond such as yourself, confuses cilia for villi(in the intestines) I get the hives.

 

[R-T-B]

Yes, when some rough diamond such as yourself, confuses cilia for villi(in the intestines) I get the hives.

What's with the passive agressive crap man? "Rough Diamond... have you won the nobel yet?"

No, and I don't plan to.

I refuse to thread crap with you further.

 

[mtcn77]

No, and I don't plan to.

Perhaps, you should think bigger. People discover new organs all the time. Anatomy is a path to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

 

[Sithaer]

With COVID being a vascular disease, it can do a heck of a lot more than just damage your lungs. It amazes me that some people don't take it seriously.

I'm tempted to show these images to a friend of mine who still thinks its nothing and doesn't care about it..
But then again he would most likely tell me that its photoshopped or something. 'gave up trying to reason with him'

 

[mtcn77]

I refuse to thread crap with you further.

That is quite the misunderstanding you got there coming to lecture me and stuff...
I like the suggestion though, maybe they do transfer oxygen.

I like the gills idea. Better win the Nobel with it...

 

[claes]

@mtcn77 bringing that LDE

 

[mtcn77]

@mtcn77 bringing that LDE

Thanks, a compliment is a compliment. Some people have brains, some BDE - or should I say 'rona?

 

[the54thvoid]

Quit bickering. And some allowance should be given for mispelt words. Please keep things civil.

 

[mtcn77]

At least try to hide your ignorance in a thread of science?
There is no room for interpretation: ciliated epithelium is everywhere the respiration tract. Lungs are the organs at the end. Your lungs aren't your noses, ears, ovaries, or testes.
Don't get fussy when you stand corrected.

 

[the54thvoid]

While your point on cilia is sort of correct (the initial pic was cilia -part of but not the cell), in general, there is often room for interpretation in science. The point of science is to discuss and investigate, to eliminate what is not, and to verify what is. Much of anatomy is pretty much solid ground. Most scientific theory is robust enough but even there, debate can be had around certain elements. But that isn't the point here.

The point in the forum is to remain civil and try not to condescend. A good few posts were LQ'd because of that spiralling theme.

 

[R-T-B]

I mean, I wasn't trying to debate anything. Just post my experience. Sorry to all for the drama. Definitions at that level are not something I know or care to debate.

 

[mtcn77]

Come on now, you aren't even flagging his false information. Is it condescending to have to name this? He comes with his gaslight torching the tracks derailing the thread and it isn't even flagged. Why do I concern myself with ignorants, there is no hope.