Anatomical perspective on the loss of smell and taste sensation in SARS-CoV-2 infection

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic that originated from the Wuhan region of China continues to cause major disruptions globally. Loss of smell and taste sensation is reported to be an early indicators of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We provide here an anatomical perspective highlighting the anatomical regions, epithelial cell types and receptors categories involved in facilitating SARS-CoV-2 virus entry into host organism to rationalize the early loss of smell and taste sensation observed in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. We believe the anatomical perspective on anatomical regions, epithelial cell types and receptors categories presented here will be helpful in developing functional anatomy based effective strategies for early detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus positive patients.