Since the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, images of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 have been permanently implanted in our minds. However, the virus is not exactly shaped like a sphere with spikes as we typically imagine it. Images taken under a microscope of infected tissues reveal coronavirus particles to be ellipsoidal in shape and to have a variety of compressed and elongated morphologies.

Researchers from Queen’s University in Canada and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan are leading a global study team that has examined how different elliptical shapes affect how viral particles rotate within fluids, affecting how easy the virus can spread. Recent publication of the study in the journal Physics of Fluids.

According to Professor Eliot Fried, head of OIST’s Mechanics and Materials Unit, when coronavirus particles are breathed in, they move around inside the nose and lungs. “We want to know how mobile they are in these surroundings,” the researcher said.

The speed at which particles rotate as they move through the fluid is controlled by rotational diffusivity, a particular type of movement that the scientists modelled (in the case of the coronavirus, droplets of saliva). Fluid drag is reduced and rotation speed is increased in smoother, more hydrodynamic particles. The ability of coronavirus particles to bind to and infect cells is influenced by their rotating speed.

In their research, the scientists modelled both prolate and oblate ellipsoids of revolution. Prolate shapes have one longer axis and oblate shapes have one shorter axis, which sets them apart from spheres (which have three axes of equal length). Prolate shapes grow into rod-like shapes when followed to their logical conclusion, whilst oblate shapes contract into coin-like shapes. On the other hand, coronavirus particles differ in a more subtle way.

The scientists improved the ellipsoids’ surface by coating them with spike proteins to create the most accurate model yet. The inclusion of triangular-shaped spike proteins slows the rotation of coronavirus particles, potentially increasing the virus’ ability to infect cells, according to earlier research from Queen’s University and OIST.

Each spike protein was represented by a single sphere on the surface of the ellipsoids in the scientists’ simplified model of the spike proteins.

At order to determine the arrangement of the spikes on the surface of each ellipsoidal shape, Dr. Vikash Chaurasia, a postdoctoral researcher in the OIST Mechanics and Materials Unit, explained, “We then assumed that they all have the same charge. Similar charge spikes reject one another and seek out as much space as possible. They consequently surround the particle evenly, minimising its repulsion.

The researchers’ model revealed that a particle rotates more slowly the further it deviates from a spherical shape. This would suggest that the particles have improved alignment and cell-attachment abilities.

The model is still crude, the researchers acknowledge, but it advances our knowledge of the coronavirus’s transport characteristics and may help identify a factor that is crucial to the success of its infective process.

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