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After nearly three years of the pandemic, COVID-19 is no longer a disease that only affects a select small group of people. There have been over 600 million cases of coronavirus infection worldwide so far. In Poland, it is already over 6 million cases. Despite this, there are people among us who still managed to escape the virus, despite regular exposure to it. Who are the super immune to the coronavirus?
- Among people super resistant to the coronavirus there are, among others health care workers and household members of people who suffered from COVID-19 symptomatically
- Among the theories explaining this phenomenon is the one about previously acquired immunity to various types of coronavirus
- It could have been produced through regular exposure to them in an environment where different types of microorganisms mix, e.g. in hospitals, educational and childcare facilities.
- Scientists are also considering a theory where genes play a major role
- More information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page
Who is Super Resistant to COVID-19?
In the first year of the pandemic, scientists were concerned with determining who was most susceptible to coronavirus infection. Today, in an era of increasing numbers of cases, including reinfection (reinfection) and breakthrough infection (illness after vaccination against COVID-19), their attention is drawn to a completely different group. These are people who have not been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus so far, despite having had long or regular contact with its carriers.
This includes co-householders of people living in isolation. There are infected people around them, often with a moderate or severe course of COVID-19, and they not only can boast of a negative coronavirus test result, but also do not show even the slightest sign of deterioration of well-being. How it’s possible?
Scientists have several theories explaining this phenomenon. Of course, the answer that they were just lucky was not considered from the beginning. In the end, they met the most important «conditions» of infection: they had contact with an infected person, and the contact was long-lasting, regular and intense. In most cases, also deprived of basic personal hygiene products (we rarely wear a mask at home and we do not regularly disinfect our hands).
But the super-resistant are also part of the professional groups that are in constant contact with covid patients. It’s about healthcare professionals. A good example is Lisa Stockwell, a 34-year-old nurse from Somerset, England, who worked in 2020 in the emergency room and emergency room where an initial assessment of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 was performed. Then, on behalf of a nursing agency, she took a job in a hospital and spent most of her time in covid wards.
A test the woman performed at the end of 2020, even before taking the first dose of the vaccine, did not show that she had any antibodies., proving that her body has been infected with the coronavirus asymptomatically. Later tests for the virus were also negativewhich was a huge surprise for her, because insulation was the order of the day in her work environment.
Lisa was also exposed to the infection at home. Her husband, who had a fever for two weeks, fell ill with COVID-19. Her 63-year-old mother, who has hardly ever been ill in her life, also contracted the coronavirus. The person with whom the nurse commuted to work every day also had a positive result. Despite driving together for a few days after the potential contact of a fellow passenger with an infected person, the virus did not attack Lisa.
- See also: Who is the most resistant to the Omikron variant?
COVID-19 resistance. Exposure to other viruses matters
Cases of people similar to Lisa have been analyzed by researchers at University College London. When examining their pre-vaccination blood samples, they actually found no coronavirus antibodies. But they found something else.
Their blood was found to contain T lymphocytes – other cells of the immune system, similar to those found in the immune system of people who recovered from COVID-19 infection. Like antibodies, T cells are made by the immune system to fight off the pathogen. However, while antibodies stop viral cells from entering the body, T cells attack and destroy them.
The presence of these cells was unusual for researchers, but the basic question was: how did they end up in the blood of people who did not have COVID-19?
According to the researchers, it is very possible that they developed T lymphocytes as a result of previous, regular exposure to coronaviruses. This would be confirmed by further tests, which were used for blood samples collected back in 2011. In every 20th sample, antibodies that could cope with SARS-CoV-2 were found.
Interestingly, many of the samples were from children. Additionally, the highest levels of antibodies were noticed in them. The explanation could be microbial mixing in groups of children (nurseries, kindergartens and schools), which would result in a greater resistance of young patients to various types of coronavirus. According to the authors of the study, this may also explain the fact that in this age group severe COVID-19 is less common than in adults.
- Also Read: Scientists Discover How You Can Get Super-immune to COVID-19
Do you want to test your COVID-19 immunity after vaccination? Have you been infected and want to check your antibody levels? See the COVID-19 immunity test package, which you will perform at Diagnostics network points.
Genes can protect against COVID-19
Another hypothesis under consideration for super-resistance is genes. Interesting research in this area is conducted by scientists from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. They invited 100 couples to participate in the study. In each of them, one person was infected with the coronavirus and had symptoms of the infection, while his / his partner / partner tested negative for the presence of the virus and, additionally, for the presence of antibodies to COVID-19. The DNA of these people is to be analyzed, and its aim is to check whether there is any key difference in their genetic material.
Why do researchers suspect that we have super immunity in our genes? Because in medicine there have already been cases of people who, despite constant contact with infected people, did not become infected precisely because of genetic resistance. This includes the case of the American Stephen Crohn from the mid-90s, who, despite repeated contact with his HIV-infected partners, showed no signs of contracting him. Scientists then discovered a genetic mutation in his DNA that inhibits HIV’s ability to penetrate into the body’s cells.
- See also: Genetic vaccines for COVID-19. Is it possible to integrate viral RNA into the human genome? [WE EXPLAIN]
Immunologist Jean-Laurent Casanova of Rockefeller University in New York believes that gene therapies could be a future solution for people who are not naturally immune. And by the way, be a great alternative to vaccines, as they will most likely work against new variants of viruses, eliminating the need for booster doses of vaccines.
Meanwhile, experts hope that research on super-immunity will now allow the development of a vaccine resistant to the new SARS-CoV-2 strains and possibly stop the seemingly endless pandemic.