Previous infections with non-unusual bloodless viruses can cause the immune formula to recognize SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study.
The study, published on August 4 in the journal Science, found that immune cells known as T cells that recognize non-unusual non-unusual bloodless coronaviruses also recognize expression sites in SARS-CoV-2, adding portions of the notorious “peak” protein it uses to bind to and invade human cells.
This “memory” of the existing immune formula would possibly explain why some people have milder COVID-19 infections than others; however, the authors note that this speculation is “highly speculative” and requires further confirmation of studies. In fact, it is unclear what role T cells play in combating COVID-19: T cells are just one component of a complex collection of molecules and cells that make up our immune formula.
”We have now shown that, in some people, the reminiscence of pre-existing T cells as opposed to non-unusual bloodless coronaviruses can recognize SARS-CoV-2, even precise molecular structures,’ examines co-leader Daniela Weiskopf, assistant professor at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology in La Jolla, California, said in a statement.
It is conceivable that this “immune reactivity translates into other degrees of protection” opposite COVID-19, the main author of the study, Alessandro Sette, professor at the Institute of Immunology of La Jolla, said in the press release. “Having a strong T-cell reaction, or a greater reaction of T cells, can give you the opportunity to mount a much faster and more powerful reaction.”
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Previous studies have shown that more than 50% of other people who were never exposed to COVID-19 have T cells that recognize SARS-CoV-2. This capability has been seen in others around the world, in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and Singapore. Scientists have hypothesized that this existing immunity may be due only to past infections with other coronaviruses, especially those that cause bloodless infections.
In the new study, researchers analyzed blood samples taken from others between 2015 and 2018, long before COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, China.
These blood samples contained T cells that responded to more than a hundred expression sites in SARS-CoV-2. Researchers showed that these T cells also reacted to sites in 4 other coronaviruses that cause bloodless infections.
“This study provides very strong direct molecular evidence that reminiscence T cells can” see “sequences that are very between bloodless coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2,” Sette said.
In addition to binding to the complex protein, T cells also identified viral proteins beyond the tip.
Currently, the maximum applicants for the COVID-19 vaccine point to the complex protein, however, the new findings recommend that the inclusion of other proteins in a vaccine, in addition to the tip, can simply take advantage of this cross-reactivity of T cells and potentially improve the potency of the vaccine, the scholars said, many more studies would be needed to show it.
The authors note that their cross-reactivity effects with T cells are different from those observed with neutralizing antibodies, a weapon of the immune formula that prevents a pathogen from infecting cells. Neutralizing antibodies opposed to bloodless viruses are expressed for these viruses and have no cross-reactivity with SARS-CoV-2, according to previous studies, the authors said.
Originally on Live Science.
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