A team of researchers funded by NHLBI have decoded the chain of molecular responses of the human lung cells when they are infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The findings, published in the journal Molecular Cell, help to identify already available therapies that could be used to treat the disease.
It seems the key is a type of protein modification called phosphorylation, which regulates the normal function of proteins inside the cells but becomes aberrant after the cells are infected.
The virus throws the lung cells into disarray, causing abnormal changes in protein amounts and frequency of protein phosphorylation inside these cells. These abnormal changes help the virus to multiply, eventually destroying the cells. The destruction of infected cells may result in widespread lung injury.