Can't smell the virus: SARS-CoV-2, chromatin organization, and anosmia

Matan Sorek; Eran Meshorer

doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2022.04.015

Can't smell the virus: SARS-CoV-2, chromatin organization, and anosmia

Dev Cell. 2022 May 9;57(9):1081-1082. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.04.015.

Authors

Matan Sorek¹, Eran Meshorer²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute for Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel; The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel.
² Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute for Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel; The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel. Electronic address: eran.meshorer@mail.huji.ac.il.

Abstract

Anosmia, or loss of smell, is strongly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, but the underlying mechanism remains obscure. In a recent Cell study, Zazhytska et al. (2022) report non-cell-autonomous disruption of long-range genomic interactions of olfactory receptor genes in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and these interactions remain disrupted long after virus clearance.

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MeSH terms

Anosmia*
COVID-19*
Chromatin / genetics
Humans
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics
Smell

Substances

Chromatin