Simplifying Covid-19 Into One Mechanism: The Epithelial-endothelial Crosstalk
It could explain it all — from lungs to vessels to multiorgan.
The Multifaceted Covid-19
We see all imaginable symptoms with Covid-19, which is supposed to be a pneumonia disease. Yet Covid-19 can affect the brain, peripheral nerves, olfaction, taste, throat, thyroid, liver, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, spleen, semen, skin, blood vessels, toes, and probably more to come.
It’s intriguing how one virus, SARS-CoV-2, could cause so many symptoms. Is there actually a unifying mechanism of disease progression that could explain most of these symptoms?
The Epithelial-Endothelial Crosstalk
In a May research letter to Intensive Care Medicine, Amit Jain and D. John Doyle, professors of anesthesiology at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, proposed the “epithelial–endothelial crosstalk” hypothesis. And thorough autopsy findings later confirms it.
Epithelial cells refer to the lining or membrane that covers a specific tissue, such as alveoli (i.e., air sacs). In contrast, endothelial cells are a specialized type of epithelial cell that covers blood vessels.
- In this crosstalk, the spike protein of…
