While the resources of the global scientific community are concentrated on the development of the vaccine and the methods of treatment of COVID-19, the specialists in the field of sensory physiology are leading massive research of the influence of the infection on the functionality of hemosensory systems, i.e. smell, taste and trigeminal sensitivity of the oral cavity. In response to the global pandemic of COVID-19 the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research (GCCR) https://gcchemosensr.org/ has been created to unite the efforts of more than 600 researchers from 52 countries. The Russian scientists have not stayed aside. The researchers of the IPEE RAS have joined the work of the Global Consortium. Through the use of crowdsourcing, starting from 22th of April more than 30 thousand responses have been received from the global survey. The first results of research, based on the survey of 4039 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in more than 40 countries including Russia have been outlined in the following article on the site of merdrxiv: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.20090902v2
“A global pandemic demands a global response,” - says Vera Vosnesenskaya, the leading researcher of A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, member of GCCR, the coordinator of this research in Russia. “The results of research have shown that the infected with COVID-19 observe not only a loss of smell and taste, but a loss of trigeminal sensitivity, i.e. the ability sense the pepper burn, the soda tingling or the menthol freezeю It is significant that these patients did not suffer from runny nose or snuffle, which indicates damage in the neuronal substrate. Our research continues and in perspective, the loss of olfactory senses and trigeminal sensitivity can be used to discern between SARS and COVID-19, i.e. serve as an indicator of the coronavirus infection”.
The research is in progress. If you have recently suffered any respiratory illness, including a common cold, flu, SARS or COVID-19, please join or research. The poll is available in 29 languages, including Russian.