Australian scientists make an astounding Covid-19 discovery

Scientists at the University of Sydney have discovered a protein in the lungs that blocks Covid and forms a natural barrier to the virus. 

The naturally occurring protein, LRRC15, works by attaching itself to the virus like velcro, preventing it binding with more vulnerable cells and reducing the chance of infection. 

The astonishing find may finally explain why some people suffer serious illness with the virus, while others never get sick or appear symptomless. 

LRRC15 is not present in humans until the virus enters the body but it appears after infection. 

The protein helps activate the body’s response to Covid and the team behind the  incredible find hopes it will offer a promising pathway to develop new drugs to fight the virus.

Researchers believe that patients who died from Covid-19 did not produce enough of the protein, or produced it too late to make a difference. 

The newly discovered protein could be part of our body’s natural response to combating COVID-19

This theory is supported by a separate study from London that examined blood samples for LRRC15.

That study found the protein was lower in the blood of patients with severe covid compared to patients that had mild Covid. 

Professor Greg Neely, who led the study, said his team was one of the three internationally to independently to uncover this specific protein’s interaction with COVID-19.

The other teams were at Oxford University in the UK and Yale and Brown universities in the US.

‘For me, as an immunologist, the fact that there’s this natural immune receptor that we didn’t know about, that’s lining our lungs and blocks and controls virus, that’s crazy interesting,’ Prof Neely said.

Postdoctoral researcher and study co-author Dr Lipin Loo said the LRRC15 protein was far more present in the lungs of people with COVID-19 than those without, suggesting it was already helping to protect people from COVID-19.

‘When we stain the lungs of healthy tissue, we don’t see much of LRRC15, but then in COVID-19 lungs, we see much more of the protein,’ Dr Loo said.

The team hopes their discovery will help develop new antiviral and antifibrotic medicines to treat COVID-19, and other viruses where lung fibrosis occurs.

‘We think this newly identified protein could be part of our body’s natural response to combating the infection creating a barrier that physically separates the virus from our lung cells most sensitive to COVID-19.’

The team hopes their discovery will help develop new antiviral and antifibrotic medicines to treat COVID-19, and other viruses where lung fibrosis occurs.

They found LRRC15 is also expressed in fibroblast cells, the cells that control lung fibrosis, a disease which causes damaged and scarred lung tissue. 

Covid-19 can lead to lung fibrosis, and it is hoped that the stunning find can help battle long Covid. 

‘We can now use this new receptor to design broad-acting drugs that can block viral infection or even suppress lung fibrosis,’ Neely said. There are currently no good treatments for lung fibrosis, he said.