The COVID-19 pandemic is prompting UNM biologists to use animal models to conduct research on symptoms seen in people infected with SARS-COV-2. A new study from the University of New Mexico digs deeper into why certain symptoms are caused by COVID-19. Irene Salinas is Associate Professor of Biology at the State University of New York. She explains: “In my lab, we are very interested in the interaction between viruses and olfactory systems. In particular, why do some people lose their sense of smell when infected with a virus? Zebrafish are widely used in biomedical research for several reasons. “They are transparent so we can do a lot of things in terms of imaging the whole animal, and they are also very good at genetic manipulation so we can modify things in zebrafish to change the composition of the DNA,” explains Salinas. .
The researchers use the spike protein, the part of the virus responsible for infecting the host. Aurora Kraus, PhD, says: "I can put it right in the nose of a small fish and see how the nose and the neurons that smell react to the virus."
This helps them understand how neurons and immune cells interact in the nose and how these two functions affect your brain. “I did histological staining and saw that the area of the neuroepophloem where the sensory neurons that detect smell live is really badly damaged,” Kraus says.
The leaders of this study at UNM hope this model will help understand long-term COVID-19 systems and the impact of vaccines on populations.
