Scientists Address Questions About Coronavirus Immunity

One thing that has been revealed about this little little coronavirus is that it has changed the world. The mark is huge. But SARS-CoV-2 is still a mystery, and the front and center of this puzzle is to understand immunity.

Why are some people sick and others not? Which mechanism in the body can successfully fight off the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2?

“One of the key questions we were trying to understand is how immunity is protected against SARS-CoV-2.”

“One of the key questions we were trying to understand is how immune protection is protected against SARS-CoV-2.” Infectious Diseases at UC San Diego and Surroundings and Global Dr. Sydney Ramirez, a virologist and doctor in the public health department, said La Jolla Immunology Institute.

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Ramirez had already studied the coronavirus before the pandemic. Her inspiration came from her dad, a doctor who looked after people who had the original SARS infection in 2003. When the new coronavirus emerged in January, she was ready to dive right away.

Six months later, she and other scientists around the world Got more clues About immunity. Still, the answer is not that simple, or at least not yet.

Immunity as war

Generally, a virus is a mass of proteins that cannot function on their own. It needs to enter the host cell to survive. One way to think about the immune response to the virus is to imagine a war in the body.

“There is always this arms race where the virus tries to make better weapons, and then the body makes better weapons,” Ramirez said. “And that’s a sort of problem, who wins?”

Scientists know that SARS-Cov-2 enters cells in specific ways. The virus has a spiked protein in its shell—it’s like a special key that can open the door to our cells, Ramirez explained.

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“That’s basically when you go into the cell, you hijack the factory, pump out different parts, increase the virus, increase the virus, increase the virus,” Ramirez said. “And usually what happens is that it makes so many viruses that it kills cells.”

Our bodies have various weapons and strategies to prevent this hijacking. Some act as general first responders to all types of infections.

“It’s a kind of blunt weapon and I don’t know the difference between different viruses.”

“It’s a kind of blunt device, it doesn’t know the difference between different viruses,” she said, adding that people may experience elevated temperatures and fever in the reaction.

Other responses are more targeted and, like special forces, you will learn how to adapt to a particular virus. They can contain specific antibody proteins that can neutralize viruses or T cells. Different types of T cells can coordinate the attack on the virus or even kill it.

Immunity hints on T cells?

Ramirez began looking for clues as to how these responses act on SARS-Cov-2 In blood samples from a small number of patients A person who has recovered from a mild case of COVID-19 after being infected.

“One of the really cool things we’ve seen is that people have a good immune response, both antibody and T cell responses to spike proteins,” Ramirez said. “And the reason I said this is good news is the fact that spike proteins are a major part of the virus targeted by the vaccines there.”

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There are limitations to examining the immune response in the lab, and these too have a small sample size.

“So it gave us the first step,” she said.

Winding road

These first steps are to send scientists on a winding journey. For example, some people do not develop a strong antibody response, but the coronavirus still seems to survive well. Ramirez confirmed that the virus activated a specific T cell response in all the samples studied.

this is This branch Leading our special forces attack?

“I don’t think it’s black and white,” Virologist Rory de Vries Focused on immunology at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands.

De Vries has been tracking patients for a long time, and recently Researched Of the sample from a patient who was actually ill, unlike the sample that Ramirez saw. Some died.

“This means that these T cells may be protective, but they may also be some clues that may play a role in exacerbating the disease.” I don’t know, so it’s one of the topics that needs further research.”

“This means that these T cells may be protective, but they may also be some clues that they may play a role in exacerbating the disease.” He said. Topic that needs further study. “

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Depending on the virus, these special forces may unresponsively overreact bystanders and kill them, or inadvertently attack their bodies and organs. At times, the effectiveness of these special forces depends on the timing and how quickly and reliably they can mobilize when the virus becomes established. It may be the combination of responses that is important.

De Vries, Ramirez and others explore these possibilities, as well as whether previous exposure to other types of coronaviruses, such as the common cold, could help the body’s immune response to SARS-Cov-2. I am pursuing.

For example, the Ramirez group found that some blood samples from patients who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2 still had an immune response to the virus in the laboratory. She suspects that those patients may have already had other coronaviruses.

For the doctor Susanna DunacheeThe new coronavirus, which co-runs the COVID-19 immunological laboratory at Oxford University in the UK, continues to surprise her.

“I’ve been humbled about this virus many times,” said Dunachie, who is independent of the Oxford vaccine trial.

Dunachie also believes that T cells are important in building protective immunity, or adaptive immunity, where the special forces of the body learn to successfully recognize and attack this particular virus in the future.

But why are some people ill and others are unable to depend on many other factors? For example, what is happening in the cells of the immune response or the site of initial exposure to the virus, such as the nose.

“There may be other bacteria or viruses that contaminate your nose and live harmlessly in them, they may affect whether this particular virus is kept” Hmm.”

“There may be other bacteria or viruses that contaminate your nose and live there innocuously, they may affect whether this particular virus holds” She said.

for Donna FaberAn important clue to immunology, the head of the surgical sciences at Columbia University and the professor of microbiology and immunology, lies in what is happening at specific sites of infection, such as the lungs.

“What’s going on with this lung immune response and why it’s failing [for people who get very ill]? I think that’s really important,” said Faber.

Researchers are also looking for age-related immunity clues. What is the difference in the immune response in children compared to adults? In all of these efforts, the big looming question is how long people can maintain their immunity to this disease if they get COVID-19 and recover.

“The next thing to check is whether people will get another serious infection,” Dunachie said. “And we have to wait.”

Dunachie and others hope that all these clues now learning about immunity improve the world’s understanding of the virus, thereby improving treatment, vaccines, and overall response.