Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and now Omicron are all members of the Coronavirus family. These pathogens infect many creatures including humans, and they may jump between them. They all have bulb tipped spikes on their outsides that make them look like tiny crowns, or coronas. We have begun a series to understand them better. Today we review how the Coronavirus gets inside our bodies.
What Happens After a Coronavirus Invades Us?
That’s a good question. The Coronavirus – any of them actually – gets inside our bodies when we breathe it in. Most infections begin as common colds. In fact, colds and influenza are also caused by Coronaviruses. However, in the case of the COVID-19 family they can disrupt our natural immune system and cause chaos. This is what therefore makes them potentially dangerous and able to kill us.
Getting Back to How the Coronavirus Gets Inside Our Bodies
Every COVID-19 infection including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and now Omicron begins the same way. A single particle finds a way into our body and injects a genetic code into a healthy cell. Of course there could be more invaders multiplying the process.
The infection begins when an invading cell injects the genetic information into the human one. This causes the human cell to manufacture a copy of the invader replicating it. However, the Coronavirus prefers to do so via a protein residing on their exterior that normally regulates blood pressure.
The invading virus injects the genetic information using one of the long spike proteins on its outside we mentioned earlier. The Conversation describes this as transforming by unfolding and refolding itself like a coiled-up spring.
It hammers away until it crashes through the human cell’s defenses. This creates a channel through which the genetic data flows. That’s how the Coronavirus gets inside our bodies. See our next post but one, to review latest data on what happens next.
Breaking News
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Preview Image: Micrograph View of MERS-CoV
