Title : Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and nasal air conditioning ability

Abstract:

The nasal cavity has an important physiological role in warming and humidifying inspired air before the it enters the nasopharynx and trachea. This process has been termed nasal air conditioning. Nasal structures vary geographically, and have been correlated with the varying needs for nasal air conditioning in cold and dry climates at one extreme and warm and humid climates at the other. Morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 during the pre-vaccination phase of the pandemic was reported to be greater in persons of tropical descent in temperate zone countries and was attributed to differential nasal air conditioning ability influencing protective immune responses in the upper respiratory tract to SARS-CoV-2 [1-3]. Supportive scientific evidence, and the implications for controlling respiratory viral infections and our understanding of human evolution, are discussed.

1. Ramasamy, R. Nasal conditioning of inspired air, innate immunity in the respiratory tract and SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. Open Sci Forum 2020. DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/4j95b.
2. Ramasamy, R. Perspective of the relationship between the susceptibility to initial SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and optimal nasal conditioning of inhaled air. Int J Mol Sci 2021, 22, 7919.
3. Ramasamy, R. Innate and adaptive immune responses in the upper respiratory tract and the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2. Viruses 2022, 14, 933.

Biography:

Ranjan Ramasamy graduated in 1971 and then a PhD in 1974 from the University of Cambridge, UK. He was the Chairman of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka, Professor of Life Sciences at the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Kandy in Sri Lanka, Professor of Biochemistry in the University of Jaffna in Jaffna Sri Lanka, Professor of Immunology in the University Brunei Darussalam Medical School and held institute appointments at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK and Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, USA. He has more than 280 publications.