Posted by alexandra_k on June 30, 2020, at 8:41:39
In reply to Re: how much time? » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on June 28, 2020, at 1:56:36
> I was negative, so no such luck :)
Ah, well.
He lives, another day :)
> We keep learning more about the virus and antibodies. I've read that some sewage analysis (sounds very odd, can this be right?) from northern Italy suggested there was virus there in November. And something suggesting the same from elsewhere.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeel...
I learned that a way of remembering which viruses tended to cause gastro-intestinal symptoms was that unencapsulated viruses tended to cause gastro-intestinal symptoms. Apparently this is because un-encapsulated viruses are more resilient to stomach acid than encapsulated viruses. Apparently stomach acid messes up their coating and chops up their DNA/RNA.
So... I was surprised to learn that CoronaVirus (an encapsulated virus) was possibly transmitted via fecal-oral route... Since I thought it would have gotten chopped up by stomach acid...
Buuuuuuuut theeeeeeeeeen....
I learned that it was interesting about CoronaVirus... Because it couldn't get to location in the GI tract with intact DNA without bypassing the stomach. So... The virus is inhaled and then it targets the cells in the respiratory tract...
I think there was something about it affecting the airways (conducting zone) and also the lobes (terminal zone). But I forget... Which cells in particular it targets in the lungs... Something about ACEII receptors that usually are activated by... I forget...
Anyway...
Then they found that people were having renal (kidney) problems...
And stuff about auto-immune...
One thing that can happen is that antibodies form complexes with antigens (virus particles or whatever) and then get stuck in filtration memberanes. Like... The filtration membrane of the lungs. Or the filtration membrane of the kidneys. So the kidney problems seemed to be about that... The body making antibodies... Maybe the antibodies are a bit too broad... Not only binding to CoronaVirus particles but to particles of something else in the body, too. So an auto-immune kind of a thing...
But then they started finding it in sewerage, yeah. So then the idea that the virus was targeting some of the cells in the GI tract (downstream from the stomach). So getting there by way of travelling around in the blood, or something.
Which suggests a blood test...
I don't know. I haven't been keeping up more recently.
Last I heard was that it can be a cause of Kawasaki Disease in Kids... Or... They reckon they found a 'new' disease in Kids that looked a lot like Kawasaki Disease (don't know if aspirin is effective so it's a new case where you may prescribe children aspirin??)
And then the thing about the cytokine storm. So CoronaVirus may cause cytokine storm. So now medications that help reduce cytokine storm (e.g., corticosteroids) are thought to be CoronaVirus Medications.
The sewerage thing surprised me, a lot.
I don't know how they are finding viral load of encapsulated virus in stool. That is weird to me / news to me.
___
Every now and then I learn something in molecular biology / genetics / biochemistry that kind of blows my mind. Like... A really really really important piece of the picture or puzzle or something...
I have a lot of questions in those kinds of things... But there's a lot of concepts that I don't have / get yet so I'm not really in the place to even ask questions about what I don't know yet. I mean... I don't know enough to know what I don't know sort of a problem...
But some of the things in the vicinity...
There was this guy doing really good work (I thought) in Ancient DNA. Sort of evolutionary stuff with really really old biological samples. Neanderthal DNA etc. Anyway point is that he said he was used to trying to extract samples that were degraded pretty badly. That often they only could take a very very small piece of bone or whatever from a fossle and they were trying to sequence the genome and there was deterioration from environmental stuff...
And then there is stuff about samples becoming contaminated. So.. SOmething about people sequencing their turkey sandwich...
And then stuff about how we often don't have the whole genome... Just smaller sample bits. So then looking at fingerprints or sample bits and trying to tell whether they are... Human. Neanderthal. Bacteria. Virus. Fungus. Turkey Sandwich...
And then thinking about whats-his-name. First person to have his genome sequenced. Oops.. First person to sequence the genome. Likely his. Anyway, Venter? Craig?? ANyway... Taking samples the ocean and how many differnet things there were... MIcroorganisms. And they have DNA...
So in a sample of soil... A tiny sample of soil around a grave site... So many microorganisms with their DNA...
I just mean... I don't know what they mean when they say they are finding CoronaVirus (the present one) in this or that or the other sample...
I think they might be sequencing turkey sandwiches??
When you work in a laboratory that sequences human DNA usually... ANd you sequence things asking whether they are human... YOu likely find human from laboratory contamination.
I don't know... Viruses are small. So very very very much smaller than the human samples I'm used to thinking of / about. It could be that they have sequenced it in it's entirety. All of the proteins and all of the enzymes that it has. Every coding portion. Likely they have... Yeah. I think so...
I don't know.
I think it was because they started saying you should put the lid down on your toilet before flushing because flushing could aerosolize coronavirus particles in the water..
I didn't think that was plausible.
But maybe it is.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1110894
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20200409/msgs/1111076.html