Which is the role of the skin in the transmission of the coronavirus? In this video, Marc Domingo, PhD Researcher at the Soft Matter Theory Group at ICMAB, shares with us some of the simulation work he has done trying to elucidate the interactions that may occur between the skin and the coronavirus.

The transmission of respiratory viruses in general (including coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2 in particular) involves the expiratory emission of virus-containing aerosols and droplets which may infect other individuals via direct or indirect mechanisms. The possibility of contamination of human skin by infectious virions might play an important role in indirect transmission of respiratory viruses but little is known about the fundamental physico-chemical aspects of the virus-skin interactions.

Simulation of a spike protein within a droplet of water against skin. / Marc Domingo

In this video we show all-atom simulations between the spike SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein and two models of skin, made with Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) from computer simulations performed with the software Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics (NAMD) at the Centro de Supercomputación de Galicia (CESGA).

The video also explores what type of information we can obtain from research based in theoretical simulations, as well as some of its shortcomings.

Enjoy the video and share it!

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References

Interaction between SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and human skin models: a molecular dynamics study
Marc Domingo and Jordi Faraudo
Soft Matter, 2021,17, 9457-9468, 10.1039/D1SM01026C

Efficacy of masks and face coverings in controlling outward aerosol particle emission from expiratory activities
Sima Asadi, Christopher D. Cappa, Santiago Barreda, Anthony S. Wexler, Nicole M. Bouvier & William D. Ristenpart
Sci Rep, 2020, 10, 15665, 10.1038/s41598-020-72798-7

Soft matter science and the COVID-19 pandemic
Wilson C. K. Poon, Aidan T. Brown, Susana O. L. Direito, Daniel J. M. Hodgson, Lucas Le Nagard, Alex Lips, Cait E. MacPhee, Davide Marenduzzo, John R. Royer, Andreia F. Silva, Job H. J. Thijssen and Simon Titmussa
Soft Matter, 2020,16, 8310-8324, 10.1039/D0SM01223H

A multiscale coarse-grained model of the SARS-CoV-2 virion
Alvin Yu, Alexander J. Pak, Peng He, Viviana Monje-Galvan, Lorenzo Casalino, Zied Gaieb, Abigail C. Dommer, Rommie E. Amaro, and Gregory A. Voth
Biophys J. 2021 ; 120, 6, 1097–1104, 10.1016/j.bpj.2020.10.048