Research results have shown that the COVID-19 vaccine induces protective immunity in the nose.
Severance Hospital announced on the 24th that the research team of Professors Na Min-seok and Kim Chang-hoon of the Department of Otolaryngology, along with the team of Professor Sin-cheol Shin of the KAIST Graduate School of Medical Sciences, announced on the 24th that COVID-19 vaccination induces memory T cells in nasal tissue.
When you recover from COVID-19, memory T cells are produced. Memory T cells respond when the COVID-19 virus invades the human body and prevent the risk of COVID-19 developing into a severe disease.
Most of the research that revealed the creation and role of memory T cells was conducted on blood. The nose is the organ where the COVID-19 virus first invades and proliferates, but not much is known about memory T cells present in nasal tissue. Additionally, it was not clear whether messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based vaccines, which are currently being actively used, induce memory T cells in respiratory mucosa such as the nose. The research team determined whether vaccinated people who had never been infected had memory T cells in their nasal tissues and the characteristics of the memory T cells present.
The research team collected nasal tissues and blood from people who had not been in contact with COVID-19, vaccinated people, and people with breakthrough infection (infected after vaccination) and used flow cytometry using MHC-I multimer fluorescence staining and single-cell RNA sequencing to identify COVID-19 memory T cells. was detected and its characteristics and functions were analyzed.
The characteristics of nasal tissue memory T cells produced by the COVID-19 vaccine have been revealed. COVID-19 memory T cells could also be detected in the nasal tissue of vaccinated people who had never been infected. These cells reside in the nasal tissue similar to memory T cells generated after breakthrough infection and secrete immune substances such as interferon gamma and exert antiviral functions. did it The period of time that memory T cells existed in the nose exceeded one year.
Professor Na Min-seok said, “This is the first study to demonstrate that mRNA vaccination alone generates respiratory mucosal memory T cells, which play an important role in the immune system.” “We expect this to become important foundational knowledge for the development of the next-generation COVID-19 vaccine,” he said.
The results of this study were published in the international academic journal ‘Nature Communications (IF 14.7).’ The research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, Korea Health Industry Development Institute, and Korea Institute for Basic Science.
Reporter Jeong Yong-cheol jungyc@etnews.com
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