Australian researchers have found out why chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients face a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, which could be critical in developing new drugs.
Researchers from the Centenary Institute and the University of Technology Sydney published their findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
COPD is an inflammatory lung condition that causes airway blockage and makes it difficult to breathe. The condition affects around 400 million people in the world.
In the study, the researchers infected differentiated airway cells from COPD patients and healthy people with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. They found that the COPD airway cells had a massive increase in the amount of SARS-CoV-2 when compared to the healthy cells….