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Scientists may now have an answer to one of the greatest questions about COVID-19: whether other people extend immunity in the long term.
Early studies have warned that anti-coronavirus antibodies, proteins in the blood that form the framework of long-term infections, may disappear within a few months, but in their fear of the implications of these findings, many others have ignored the multilayer defense of our immune system. opposed to invasive pathogens.
Specifically, they have ruled the role of white blood cells, which have impressive memory powers that can cause your body to mount some other attack opposed to coronavirus if it returns. Memory T cells are a key type because they identify and destroy inflamed cells and tell B cells how to produce new antibodies targeting the virus.
A study published in the journal Cell on Friday suggests that those who contract COVID-19, including others with mild or asymptomatic cases, will expand T cells capable of tracking coronavirus if exposed later.
“Memory T cells are likely to have long-term immune coverage as opposed to COVID-19,” the test authors wrote, adding that “they could prevent recurrent episodes of severe COVID-19. “
This is because reminiscent T cells can remain for years, while antibody grades decrease after an infection.
The authors of the new study analyzed the blood of 206 other people in Sweden with COVID-19 with varying degrees of severity and found that regardless of whether a user recovered from a mild or severe case, they still had a physically powerful problem. T-cell response. Even patients with coronavirus who did not test positive for antibodies developed reminiscent T cells, showed the results.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, studies T cells as this “good news. “
“There’s a lot of hot stuff right now, ” in T-cell research, Fauci said in a Facebook Live interview with NIAID on Thursday, adding, “People who don’t seem to have higher antibody titers, but who are inflamed or inflamed, have smart T-cell responses. “
Other recent ones reinforce new discoveries.
One published in July found that in an organization of 36 patients with recovered coronavirus, they all produced reminiscent T cells that recognize and are in particular designed to combat the new coronavirus. Another recent publication in the journal Nature found that among 18 German patients with coronavirus, more than 80% evolved express T cells of the virus.
These two previous studies have also led to a more unexpected discovery: many other people who have never had COVID-19 appear to have reminiscent T cells capable of detecting the new coronavirus.
This is true for more than part of a cohort of 37 other people on the July exam and at least one-third of an organization of 68 patients on the Nature test.
The maximum likely explanation for these findings is a phenomenon called cross-reactivity: when T cells evolved in reaction to some other virus they react to a similar but unknown pathogen in the past. In this case, experts that these cross-reactivity T cells probably come from past exposure to other coronaviruses, which cause colds.
In fact, a study published earlier this month supports this hypothesis: researchers reported that 25 other people who had never had COVID-19 had reminiscent T cells capable of detecting the new coronavirus and the 4 non-unusual bloodless coronavirus types.
“This can help explain why some other people have milder symptoms of illness while others become seriously ill,” Alessandro Sette, co-author of the study, said in a press release.
“It starts on a small merit: a head starts in the arms race between the virus that needs to reproduce and the immune formula that needs it,” Sette told Business Insider.
Although this news about T cells and coronavirus immunity is promising, scientists still don’t know exactly how long other people recovering from COVID-19 will spend from a long-term infection.
The authors of the new report reported that they detected T cells “months after infection, even in the absence of detectable circulating antibodies”.
Other initial studies published Saturday suggest that T cells not only last at least 3 months after the onset of coronavirus symptoms, but in some cases, their number also increases during this period.
In addition, evidence from other coronaviruses, such as SARS, suggests that the lifespan of T cells can last for decades.
The July test also looked for T cells from blood samples from 23 other people who survived SARS. In fact, these survivors still had SARS-specific reminiscence T cells 17 years after getting sick. These same T cells can also recognize the new coronavirus.
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