Published in Science Advances · View the paper (DOI)
A new study reveals that COVID-19 causes smell loss due to infection of nonneuronal supporting cells, not neurons. The research team found that olfactory sensory neurons are not vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection because they do not express ACE2, a key protein used by the virus to enter human cells.
Coverage from 2 institutions
- How COVID-19 causes smell loss Harvard Medical School · Jul 24, 2020 · first to report
- Elevated levels of a specific protein found to correlate with inflammatory symptom severity in COVID American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) · Jul 24, 2020