The common cold can increase protection against COVID-19, researchers at Imperial College London. But they stipulate that no one should rely on this alone, and vaccines remain the best protection.
Super-resistance to COVID-19
The researchers wanted to understand why some people get COVID-19 after being exposed to the coronavirus and others not. Since COVID-19 is caused by a certain type of coronavirus and some colds are caused by other coronaviruses, researchers wondered if immunity to one type could help fight the other.
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The study, published on Monday in Nature Communications, focused on a key part of the body’s immune system – T cells, some of which kill cells infected by a specific threat, such as the common cold virus. And once the cold has passed, some T cells remain in the body as a “memory bank”, ready to defend themselves the next time they encounter the virus.
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In September 2020, so before vaccination began, they tested 52 people who were not infected themselves, but lived with people who had just tested positive for the coronavirus. Half of this group also developed COVID-28 during the 19-day study period, but half did not.
One-third of people who did not get sick had high levels of specific T-cells, the researchers explain, that they probably were created when the body was infected with another closely related human coronavirus – the most common being the common cold.
Being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not always result in infection, and we wanted to understand why. We found that high levels of pre-existing T cells, created by the body during infection with other human coronaviruses, such as the common cold, could protect against COVID-19 infection, says one of the study’s authors, Dr. Rhia Kundu.
The researchers believe the discovery could help understand how the body’s immune system fights the virus, but they emphasize that no one should rely solely on this defense, and vaccines remain crucial. They said it would be a “serious mistake” to believe that anyone who has had a recent cold has automatic COVID-19 protection because not all colds are caused by coronaviruses.
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From London Bartłomiej Niedziński (PAP)
Read also:
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