School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2020 Sep 1;319(3):L416-L421. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00244.2020. Epub 2020 Jul 22.
Epidemiological studies suggest that environmental factors (e.g., air pollution) can influence the spread and infectivity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, very few papers have investigated or discussed the mechanism behind the phenomenon. Given the fact that pollution will increase as social distancing rules are relaxed, we summarized the current understanding of how air pollution may affect COVID-19 transmission and discussed several possible mechanisms. Air pollution exposure can dysregulate the human immune response and make people more susceptible to infections, and affect infectivity. For example, in response to exposure to air pollution, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 will increase, which is the receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This may increase the efficiency of viral infection. It is also possible that air pollution can facilitate SARS-CoV-2 spread by increasing the transmission, and potentially, SARS-CoV-2 can also survive longer when attached to a pollutant.
流行病学研究表明，环境因素（例如空气污染）可能会影响 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的传播和传染性；但是，很少有论文探讨或讨论这一现象背后的机制。鉴于放宽社交距离规定后污染会增加的事实，我们总结了目前对空气污染如何影响 COVID-19 传播的认识，并讨论了几种可能的机制。空气污染暴露会使人体的免疫反应失调，使人们更容易受到感染，并影响其传染性。例如，为了应对空气污染的暴露，血管紧张素转换酶 2 会增加，这是严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）的受体。这可能会提高病毒感染的效率。空气污染也可能通过增加传播而促进 SARS-CoV-2 的传播，而且，当 SARS-CoV-2 附着在污染物上时，它可能存活得更久。
