Researchers from the US National Institute explain why patients COVID-19 lost the taste. The relevant scientific article is published on Biorxiv.
Scientists found out that taste receptors located in the human language possess an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Through this fragment, the SARS-COV-2 virus falls into the cells of the body. Thus, when infected with Coronavirus, taste is affected by taste, writes the Ukrainian edition of the correspondent.net.
Research was led by Josephin Igan, who with his team studied thousands of taste receptors of man. It is noted that the type II receptor cells in the spindle at the base of the tongue papillae and fungiform papillae on the back of ACE2 contain an enzyme which is the entry point for the virus.
45-year-old woman with a positive test on Covid-19, who complained about the loss of taste, and a 63-year-old man, patient coronavirus, participated in the experiment. The patients diagnosed the increase in the size of the tongue, redness of its foundation and found that their flavoring bulbs changed in the stem cell layer.
According to the authors of the study, an understanding of how Coronavirus affects the change and loss of taste, will help develop methods for treating patients with long-term COVID-19, in which such symptoms are stored for several months after formal recovery.