Researchers in Linköping will investigate whether the corona virus that causes the covid-19 disease can proliferate in the small intestine.
- We will investigate whether you have a fecal and oral infection, ie that the stools contain infectious virus, this is what we should investigate in Linköping and this has never been done before, says Lennart Svensson, professor of Molecular Virology at Linköping University and Karolinska Institutet .
Furthermore, Lennart Svensson tells us that coronaviruses are available in seven different forms that infect humans. The four most common ones have been around for at least 100 years and they provide cold symptoms.
- It is not uncommon to detect them in faeces in children, but it is uncertain if these four cause any disease at all, if so, they are very mild symptoms typically when colds and diarrhea.
- When it comes to the three coronaviruses, which we have recently received, mers, sars, and now covid, we know that all these viruses are also excreted in the stool, says Lennart Svensson. But the researchers now want answers to the extent to which they could contribute to the spread of infection.
In order to be able to work with the virus in Linköping, a high-risk laboratory is being built when the lab is ready, the virus must be cultivated, then cultured small intestines must be infected to give the researchers answers.