Treating SARS-CoV-2 infection in human 3D respiratory models

When a novel virus disease broke out in China at the end of 2019, the genome of the pathogen could be sequenced relatively quickly. But there are still many unresolved questions: How does it actually affect the human body? How does the infection progress in the respiratory tract? And how can the virus be prevented from entering the cells of the lungs? Microbiologist and immunologist Wilfried Posch of the Medical University of Innsbruck is investigating these questions using a 3D model of the respiratory tract. The extraordinary thing about this model is that it consists entirely of human cells and has been extended to include components of the immune system. It can thus be used to study how the virus interacts with the cells on the mucous membrane barriers of the respiratory system and to test new methods of preventing the virus from entering the body. This research project, co-funded by the State of Tyrol (each contributing €200,000), enables Wilfried Posch and his team to tailor this promising test procedure to the coronavirus and thus gain valuable insights that could pave the way for the development of a new drug. https://www.i-med.ac.at/hygiene/forschungsposchcvv2.html.en SARS-CoV-2, COVID19, respiratory system, human, immunity