May coronavirus embed itself in human DNA?

August 2, 2021  10:33

Neither the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus itself, nor its fragments used in vaccines, alter a person's DNA or integrate into his genome, a study published in the journal Cell Reports reported.

According to RIA Novosti, some viruses are known to be able to be incorporated into human genomic DNA. These include, for example, human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis B virus. Some scientists have suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has this property.

To test this assumption, biologists from the University of Queensland in Australia, along with colleagues from Spain, France and the UK, conducted a laboratory study on human HEK293T cells infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

HEK293T is a cell line derived from human embryonic kidney. It is widely used in studies of the expression of various genes, including in experiments to study the mechanisms of RNA interference.

To analyze the DNA sequence of infected cells, the authors used Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) deep long-term sequencing technology. As a result, they found no evidence for the integration of SARS-CoV-2 into the genome of human cells.

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