A Frightening New Explanation for the Lack of Blood Oxygenation in Many COVID-19 Patients

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One of the physiopathological qualities of COVID-19 that has actually most baffled the clinical and medical neighborhood is what is called “silent hypoxemia” or “happy hypoxia.” Patients suffering this phenomenon, the reasons for which are still unidentified, have extreme pneumonia with considerably reduced arterial blood oxygen levels (called hypoxemia). However, they do not report dyspnea (subjective sensation of shortness of breath) or increased breathing rates, which are normally particular signs of individuals with hypoxemia from pneumonia or any other cause.

Patients with “silent hypoxemia” frequently suffer an unexpected imbalance, reaching an important state that can be deadly. Normally, people (healthy or ill) with hypoxemia report a sensation of shortness of breath and a greater breathing rate, hence increasing the body’s uptake of oxygen. This reflex system depends upon the carotid bodies. These little organs, situated on either side of the neck beside the carotid artery, find the drop in blood oxygen and send out signals to the brain to promote the breathing center.

A group of scientists from the Seville Institute of Biomedicine – IBiS/University Hospitals Virgen del Rocío y Macarena/CSIC/University of Seville, led by Dr. Javier Villadiego, Dr. Juan José Toledo-Aral and Dr. José López-Barneo, experts in the physiopathological research study of the carotid body, have actually recommended in the journal Function, that “silent hypoxemia” in COVID-19 cases might be brought on by this organ being contaminated by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

This hypothesis, which has actually brought in the interest of the clinical neighborhood for its novelty and possible restorative significance, originates from experiments that have actually exposed a high existence of the enzyme ECA2, the protein the coronavirus utilizes to contaminate human cells, in the carotid body. In clients with COVID-19, the coronavirus flows in the blood. Therefore, scientists recommend that infection of the human carotid body by SARS-CoV-2 in the early phases of the illness might modify its capability to find blood oxygen levels, leading to a failure to “notice” the drop in oxygen in the arteries.

If this hypothesis, which is presently being evaluated in brand-new speculative designs, is validated, this would validate using activators of the carotid body independent of the oxygen picking up system as breathing stimulants in clients with COVID-19.

Reference: “Is Carotid Body Infection Responsible for Silent Hypoxemia in COVID-19 Patients?” by Javier Villadiego, Reposo Ramírez-Lorca, Fernando Cala, José L Labandeira-García, Mariano Esteban, Juan J Toledo-Aral and José López-Barneo, 23 November 2020, Function.
DOI: 10.1093/function/zqaa032