The booster doses against Covid, adapted to omicron, could help fight the variants that will come in the future.
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According to an article published by the magazine Nature, Two studies published in bioRxiv – awaiting review – would have shown – with still very small samples – that the natural infection by omicron or the application of a booster adapted could cause antibody-producing B lymphocytes to change their behavior: some they would have specialized in new mutations and others would generate defenses against the old variants and the new ones.
This discovery, they explain in the article, could question, or qualify, the theory of ‘immunological imprinting’ or ‘immunological original sin’.
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On several occasions I have commented that one of the great difficulties a virus can have in escaping the immune response is the role of T lymphocytes and their ability to adapt the immune response (IR) to possible mutations.
– Rafa Toledo (@alfwarrior) August 5, 2021
According to the immune imprinting hypothesis, the system would focus more on the first strain of virus that comes into contact with a person or on the first dose of vaccine that is injected, specializing against it.
And that wouldn’t be entirely good when it comes to fight new mutations, as the defense cells would focus too much on protection against the original pathogen, especially after three injections with the same formulation.
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This means that, for example, a simple encounter with a new variant or an adapted vaccine would not be enough respond efficiently in the future or to other similar lineages, since many lymphocytes would already be specialized to defend the organism from the original strain and only a few would be created to fight the new mutation.
The system adapts
However, one of the studies cited by Nature would show that the body is able to adapt to both new and old enemies while creating specific defenses for both.
Specifically, the scientists would study “samples of lymph nodes from 26 people and the bone marrow of 15 other participants who had previously received the original dose and the booster against omicron. And by doing so, the scientists would have found that many B lymphocytes were able to detect the Wuhan strain and omicron BA.1, hence some of the existing ones. they would have adapted to the new mutation. That is, these cells would have “learned”.
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Another study conducted on six people confirmed another interesting phenomenon in omicron infected, after vaccination with the original dose.
According to this second survey, one month after BA.1 infection, most B lymphocytes would continue to do so. better detect the Wuhan strain compared to the first variant of omicron but, after six months, they would have “adapted” or changed, as they say, and half of the B lymphocytes would already be able to fight BA.1 with specific antibodies.
For this, they indicate, it is not a bad idea to design suitable reinforcements for circulating variants, they point out, since, on the one hand, future mutations may be closer to these doses and why the immune system itself may be able to adapt and to some extent circumvent the so-called “immune imprinting”.
A fact that, if the results of these studies were finally confirmed, would be positive, since the organism would not necessarily resort to “virgin” B cells. but, as mentioned at the beginning, it would produce new specialized defenses and adapt existing ones against the new virus and its previous versions.
“The immune system has had millions of years to figure out that if a virus shows up, there is a good chance it will in the near future some relative of that virus appears. Having a variety of ways to respond is invaluable, “he says Nature Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California.
“B cells are changing and adapting to the variants that are generated and respond to them. It’s a process called somatic hypermutation and that it is quite effective, so that even if the original strain varies somewhat, the system has the ability to adapt. It’s logical and I think that’s what’s going on, “he says 65 YEARS OLD the professor of parasitology at the University of Valencia, Raphael Toledo.
And as regards the theory of “immune imprinting”, he explains, it is an explainable phenomenon and for this reason in some cases new ones must be inoculated booster, so that the answer is more powerful against the new variants.
“This article is not definitive in its explanations”
However, other scientists, cited by Nature, assure that the sample is still very small and that there are other studies confirming that an omcron infection caused the creation of defenses against this variant but not against everyone.
“This article by Nature offers a particular insight into the immune response with much speculation. In the first place, we consider a not very large sample and we understand the generated antibodies can bind to variants. Another thing is to block them. Likewise, the generation is said to be better against that variant, not all strains of SARS-CoV-2. This may or may not be true. What seems clear is that the updated vaccination can help add more reasons for response in the underlines of omcron. The problem is that a different variant was born “, says the head of the immunology service of the CU Virgen de Arrixaca hospital, Manuel Wall.
“All the variants accumulate mutations shared between them, the most complicated, the ones that produce greater transmission, do not seem to be more virulent and not in the future. But as I always say, nobody knows. And this article does not become definitive in its explanations , in my opinion. It is yet another point of view. For those who have not had covid in the last year, it could be important to add more targets not present in the previous strains or variants – reinforcements-. For those who have or have omicrons in the past in the respective variants, and we are not a vulnerable population, I think the immune response, at least the memory response, will last longer, “he concludes.
