SYDNEY, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Researchers of Australia's University of Queensland (UQ) found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not infect blood vessels, despite the high risk of blood clots to COVID-19 patients.
Researchers used real, infectious viruses rather than fragments of the virus's spike protein in the experiment to detect how the virus causes damage to blood vessels. They used sophisticated microscopy facilities to track where the virus travelled in the cells and visualise how blood vessels respond to the live virus.
Their findings, published in the Clinical and Translational Immunology and revealed to the public on Wednesday, showed the cardiovascular complications of COVID-19 are triggered by inflammation caused by infected airway cells rather than the virus itself.
"There have been many studies attempting to prove whether the virus is infecting cells of the inner blood vessel wall or not... we can definitively say it is not," said Dr. Emma Gordon from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience.
Her colleague, immunologist Dr. Larisa Labzin, said the body's inflammatory response had a big effect on the cardiovascular system because they work together to fight infection, the blood delivers the immune cells to the site of infection and makes blood clots if the blood vessel is damaged.
"When our immune system works well, it clears the virus from our bodies. But sometimes it goes into overdrive and we get an overblown inflammatory response causing complications, in the case of COVID-19, this is often blood clots, when there shouldn't be any," Labzin said.
At least 40 percent of patients that are hospitalized with COVID-19 are at high risk of blood clots, and anti-coagulation therapies are now being routinely used, according to Gordon.
Researchers said the study helps clarify a key debate about the relationship between the virus and the lining of the blood vessels, and it will help them develop the right treatments, and a better understanding of how and why these complications arise. Enditem