Common cold may impart immunity to children against COVID-19, study reveals
Sweden: Researchers and medical doctors noticed during the pandemic that children and adolescents infected with COVID-19 became less ill than adults. A possible explanation for this is that children already had a prior level of immunity to COVID-19 provided by memory T cells generated by common colds.
According to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a common cold may impart children's immunity against COVID-19. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now identified memory T cells that react to cells infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, after studying unique blood samples from children taken before the pandemic.
This new study reinforces this hypothesis and shows that T cells previously activated by the OC43 virus can cross-react against SARS-CoV-2.
Four coronaviruses cause common colds
A possible explanation for this immunity in children is that they already had colds caused by one of the four coronaviruses causing seasonal common cold symptoms. This could stimulate an immune response with T cells able to also react to cells infected with SARS-CoV-2.
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