(Levon Sevunts/ Radio-Canada International) — What makes the elderly and people with underlying conditions more vulnerable to COVID-19? Why does the coronavirus infect certain animals but not the others?
Finding answers to these questions could be the key to unlocking new treatments and therapies for COVID-19, which has already infected more than 70 million people worldwide and took the lives of nearly two million people.
According to a new study by Canadian researchers, clues to these scientific mysteries can be found in the proteins involved in the process of the virus binding itself to host cells of different animals.
A recently published study by researchers at McGill University in Montreal points to the possibility that greater cellular oxidation with aging and sickness may explain why seniors and people with chronic illness get infected more often and more severely.
In a study published in Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, researchers analyzed available protein sequences of the virus and host cell receptors across different species to find out why. (…)