COVID-19: Separating Fact from Fiction

by Anirban Mahapatra

In contrast the wealth of information on SARS-CoV-2 entry into cells, not much is known about how fully formed virus particles exit cells. Unlike most other enveloped viruses that use the cell’s biosynthetic secretory pathway to get out, SARS-CoV-2 and a few other coronaviruses use lysosomes—parts of cells that normally compact trash.12 In the process, virus particles wreak havoc on lysosomes, preventing them from performing their job of clearing out other invaders and broken cellular parts. It takes around ten minutes for SARS-CoV-2 proteins and RNA to get inside lung cells. It takes much longer, approximately ten hours, for new virus particles to be made inside the cell. Anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand virus particles might come out from one infected cell.