NEW DELHI: Indian scientists have established stable cultures of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), isolated from patients’ samples, to develop vaccine and test potential drugs to treat covid-19 disease.
Virologists at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) explained that the novel coronavirus enters human cell by binding with the ACE-2 receptor on the cell surface.
Not all cells have ACE-2 receptors. Human epithelial cells, which form the barrier between the inside and outside of human body protecting it from viruses--in the respiratory tract copiously express ACE-2 receptors causing respiratory disease in person infected with coronavirus.