The coronavirus is making our cells grow tentacles

• In the search for coronavirus treatments, scientists looked at the changes that take place at the cellular level to identify potential drugs and compounds that could have an antiviral effect.
• The researchers observed that cells can develop tentacles after infection with the novel coronavirus, as well as other modifications affecting kinase enzymes inside the cell.
• At least seven compounds were found to have an antiviral effect on the COVID-19 virus, with the team of researchers identifying 87 potential compounds.

The novel coronavirus is an incredible piece of biological machinery. It can survive for hours in the air, it can easily infect hosts by binding to a specific receptor, and it can take over individual cells to create thousands of replicas, which then proceed to infect other neighboring cells. Even worse, you might never even know if you're infected. Symptoms can take days to appear, if they ever show up, during which time you can spread the virus to other people. That's why you must wear a mask, as it can reduce transmission significantly.

But I digress. It turns out that SARS-CoV-2 may have another "power." The virus makes cells grow tentacles, which sounds incredibly scary. However, it's not that unusual for cells to develop tentacles, but the coronavirus does seem to facilitate that growth. Researchers have taken microscopic photography to highlight the abnormal growth while observing the various changes that occur inside infected cells and looking for potential therapies to stop COVID-19.

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The coronavirus is making our cells grow tentacles originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 1 Jul 2020 at 18:35:41 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.