Dysosmia and dysgeusia due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus; a hypothesis that needs further investigation
Seied Omid Keyhan, Hamid Reza Fallahi, Behzad Cheshmi
Abstract
Coronaviruses are known as enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome that their helical symmetry nucleocapsid is about 26–32 kilobases in size, making it the largest investigated genome among RNA viruses. The disease caused by 2019 new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was named coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization in February 2020. The 2019-nCoV is phylogenetically related to severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) [1]. It has been shown that 2019-nCov enters the cell through the ACE2 cell receptor in the same way as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus [2]. 2019-nCoV effectively uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor (ACE2) as a receptor for cell invasion [3]. Primary non-specific reported symptoms of 2019-nCoV infection at the prodromal phase are malaise, fever, and dry cough. The most commonly reported signs and symptoms are fever (98%), cough (76%), dyspnea (55%), and myalgia or fatigue (44%) [4].