News 10 november 2021
Some people who are extensively exposed to the coronavirus do not become infected. Just think of nurses who helped patients for months without protection and yet did not get sick. Why these people don’t get infected has been a mystery until now.
New research shows that some of the people who do not become infected have a lightning-fast immune response, writes The Guardian. The immune cells (T cells) of these people react strongly to the virus and clear up the infection almost immediately. Because their immune system fights the virus infection so quickly, they do not test positive in a corona test. The scientists did observe an increase in the T cells that respond to the virus in these people after exposure to the coronavirus.
There is a strong suspicion that this group is immune thanks to previous corona infections. In addition to sars-cov-2, there are several other coronaviruses that cause colds. The T cells of the people who do not get Covid-19 ‘remember’ the previous corona infections and immediately take action when they encounter SARS-COV-2.
The discovery may help develop new vaccines that protect against infection for much longer. There is also hope that a vaccine that uses the defense mechanism of the T cells can create a barrier against new mutations of the coronavirus.
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