Scientists have identified two specific cell types in the nose as likely initial infection points for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The researchers, including those from the Wellcome SangerInstitute in the UK and University Medical Centre Groningen in the Netherlands,discovered that goblet and ciliated cells in the nose have high levels of theentry proteins that the COVID-19 virus uses to get into our cells.
The identification of these cells could help explain thehigh transmission rate of COVID-19, they said.The finding,published in the journal Nature Medicine, shows that cells in the eye and someother organs also contain the viral-entry proteins.