Many of those infected with the Corona virus suffer from a loss of smell even after recovering from the disease, in a phenomenon that has received separate studies to find out its cause and search for a treatment for it. Researchers recently revealed that millions of patients who lost their sense of smell after infection with “Covid 19” may have an abnormal immune response that destroys nasal cells.
Doctors analyzed the nasal tissues of Corona patients, and found that those with long-term problems with the sense of smell had inflammatory immune cells inside the sensitive lining of the nose. According to the study, which was highlighted by the British newspaper "The Guardian", it is possible that these immune cells eliminate the neurons responsible for smell in the lining of the nose.
Bradley Goldstein, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina, said that the tissues of the lining of the nose taken from Corona patients “were found to have unique immune cells that cause inflammation, along with a smaller number of olfactory neurons.”
The abnormal immune response was detected only in patients whose sense of smell had persisted for several months. Goldstein added, "It appears that there is an unexplained immune response that affects the subtle olfactory cells."
And since doctors noticed that many patients with “Covid 19” lost their sense of smell for a long time, it was not clear whether the virus hits the sensory cells in the nose, or the areas of the brain responsible for the sense of smell, or both. In the journal "Science Translational Medicine", the researchers explain how the results of the study may pave the way for new treatments for loss of the sense of smell, after infection with the Corona virus.
One option is to counteract inflammation-causing immune cells in the lining of the nose, with creams or sprays. "We are encouraged by these results and hope that new treatments will emerge," Goldstein said.
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