A common cold might help the body defend itself once morest COVID-19 and protect the body once morest infection.
Researchers found that the T cells the body makes to fight the common cold – which, like COVID-19, can also be caused by coronaviruses – can recognize and attack the virus.
T cells are white blood cells that are an important part of the immune system.
“We have found that a high number of pre-existing T cells, which the body produces when infected with other human coronaviruses such as the common cold, can protect once morest COVID-19 infection,” said study author Dr. Rhia Kundu from Imperial College London.
The results of the independently verified study published on Monday in the Nature Communications journal was released, might also hold the key to developing the next generation of vaccines once morest current and future COVID-19 variants, the researchers said.
According to the authors, a high number of existing T cells can reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19. But nobody should rely on a cold to protect once morest Covid infection – not least because not all colds are caused by coronaviruses.
“I want to emphasize that this should not be relied on alone. Instead, the best protection once morest COVID-19 is a full vaccination, including a booster vaccination,” said Kundu.
Protection by T cells
For the Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute study, conducted in the UK, blood samples were taken from 52 participants following exposure to COVID-19 at home.
Analysis of the samples revealed that the 26 participants who became infected following exposure to the virus had lower levels of “cross-reactive” T cells than the 26 participants who did not develop COVID-19 following exposure.
The reason the cross-reactive T cells are effective lies in the way they attack the virus, the researchers said.
“These T cells provide protection by attacking proteins inside the virus rather than the spike protein on its surface,” said Professor Ajit Lalvani, lead author of the study.
In comparison, current COVID-19 vaccines promote an immune response that targets the virus’ spike protein, which is the surface portion of the virus that interacts with cells in our bodies.
As the omicron variant has shown, mutations in the spike protein can reduce the effectiveness of the current generation of COVID-19 vaccines.
“In contrast, the internal proteins targeted by the protective T cells we identified mutate much less. As a result, they are very conserved between the different SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) variants, including Omicron,” so Lalvani.
“New vaccines containing these conserved, internal proteins would therefore evoke broad protective T-cell responses that should protect once morest current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants,” he added.
The researchers said their study was “the clearest evidence yet” that T cells made in a cold might help fight COVID-19. However, due to the small number of participants, 88 percent of whom were white Europeans, they were unable to model whether people from other demographic groups would experience the same effect.
Similar results from Berlin
At the end of August 2021, the Berlin Institute of Health in the Charité and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics shared similar findings. There is a so-called cross-immunity through memory immune cells that recognize the pathogen of SARS-CoV-2, was called es in a press release.
For the study the data of around 800 people were evaluated and regularly checked how an infection and the presence of T cells affected their immune defense.
According to the researchers from Berlin, cross-immunity decreases with increasing age, which might explain severe disease courses in older people.
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