TY - JOUR
T1 - The total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions
AU - Sender, Ron
AU - Bar-On, Yinon M
AU - Gleizer, Shmuel
AU - Bernshtein, Biana
AU - Flamholz, Avi
AU - Phillips, Rob
AU - Milo, Ron
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6/22
Y1 - 2021/6/22
N2 - Quantitatively describing the time course of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection within an infected individual is important for understanding the current global pandemic and possible ways to combat it. Here we integrate the best current knowledge about the typical viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in bodily fluids and host tissues to estimate the total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person. We estimate that each infected person carries 109 to 1011 virions during peak infection, with a total mass in the range of 1 μg to 100 μg, which curiously implies that all SARS-CoV-2 virions currently circulating within human hosts have a collective mass of only 0.1 kg to 10 kg. We combine our estimates with the available literature on host immune response and viral mutation rates to demonstrate how antibodies markedly outnumber the spike proteins, and the genetic diversity of virions in an infected host covers all possible single nucleotide substitutions.
AB - Quantitatively describing the time course of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection within an infected individual is important for understanding the current global pandemic and possible ways to combat it. Here we integrate the best current knowledge about the typical viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in bodily fluids and host tissues to estimate the total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person. We estimate that each infected person carries 109 to 1011 virions during peak infection, with a total mass in the range of 1 μg to 100 μg, which curiously implies that all SARS-CoV-2 virions currently circulating within human hosts have a collective mass of only 0.1 kg to 10 kg. We combine our estimates with the available literature on host immune response and viral mutation rates to demonstrate how antibodies markedly outnumber the spike proteins, and the genetic diversity of virions in an infected host covers all possible single nucleotide substitutions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107653001&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2024815118
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2024815118
M3 - مقالة
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 118
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 25
M1 - e2024815118
ER -