Covid update: What reduces risk of catching the virus? Antibodies, immune defenders & more
Coronavirus is known to affect some more severely than others. This often comes down to a variety of factors including age and underlying health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Much confusion still lies as to why some countries have had less cases of death from COVID-19 than others. Could an immune defender be the reason to this?
The immune system’s memory of the new coronavirus lingers for at least six months in most people, it has been reported.
Although SARS-CoV-2 can be deadly, it has mild-mannered cousins called seasonal coronaviruses that are among the causes of the common cold.
Some scientists have suggested people might be shielded from SARS-CoV-2 infection if they have recently been infected by a seasonal coronavirus.
Researchers have found participants’ immune responses varied widely.
Persistent immune defenders were memory B cells, which jump-start antibody production when a pathogen is re-encountered, and two important classes of T cells.
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