TWiM 216: It starts with a cough

May 1, 2020

The TWiM team discuses saliva as more sensitive for SARS-CoV-2 detection in COVID-19 patients than nasopharyngeal swab and how Mycobacterium tuberculosis sulfolipid-1 activates nociceptive neurons and induces cough.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt

Right click to download TWiM#216 (47 MB .mp3, 64 minutes)

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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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2 comments on “TWiM 216: It starts with a cough

  1. Bruce Fehr May 1, 2020

    Good afternoon Vincent..the New York Times article mentioned in TWiM 216 is spot on with the science..I don’t know how you have time to produce the content you do and squeeze in this interview..
    Eternally impressed and grateful
    Bruce

  2. Neil Ravin May 16, 2020

    So enamored with TWiV, but not having enough episodes to fully occupy me, I branched out to TWiM and was immediately rewarded with “It Starts With A Cough” and that spectacular paper about how mycobacterium tuberculosis has a waxy/fatty element which makes people cough through calcium channels.
    Which made me think immediately of all those patients who cannot tolerate ACE (angiotension converting enzyme) inhibitors because they induce cough. This is said to happen in about 9% of patients, but in practice, most clinicians will tell you the true incidence is likely 10 times that if you use a high enough dose and if you ask patients carefully enough and demonstrate for them the throat clearing cough most of them don’t even think of as a cough but which annoys their spouses.
    Hearing from you and from Dr. Griffin that SARS 2 (COVID19) is using ACE receptors as its doorway to enter cells, and that there has been question about whether or not to stop ACE inhibitors in COVID19 patients, I wonder whether anyone has looked at the mechanism by which this virus induces cough. Presumably, there is no waxy membrane for the virus.