Four years have passed since the beginning of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic, but the SARS-CoV-2 virus has still not been eradicated and new variants are constantly emerging. Despite extensive immunization programs, breakthrough infections (infection after vaccination) with new variants are common.
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New research suggests that the human immune response is also changing to combat the constant emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2. This is evidenced by the results of a study by scientists from the Center for Viral Immunology of the Korean Institute of Virus Research at the Institute of Basic Sciences (IBS), the press service of the university reports.
In particular, it was found that the immune system faced with a breakthrough infection of the Omicron variant acquired enhanced immunity against future versions of Omicron, the article notes.
Thus, scientists have found that memory T-lymphocytes (remember certain antigens so that in the future the immune system can quickly respond to an already known disease), which are formed during a breakthrough “omicron” infection, react to the following strains of the virus.
Emerging at the end of 2021, the “omicron” variant of SARS-CoV-2 had dramatically increased transmissibility compared to its predecessors, which quickly allowed it to become the dominant strain in 2022. Since that time, new strains of “omicron” have constantly appeared, which has led to the widespread spread of breakthrough infection, despite vaccination.
Previous studies on Omicron have largely focused on the effectiveness of a vaccine or neutralizing antibodies, and there have been relatively few studies related to memory T cells, the article says.
For their study, the researchers recruited patients who had and then recovered from Omicron BA.2 breakthrough infections in early 2022 and examined their memory T cells, specifically their ability to respond to different variants of Omicron. , such as BA.2, BA.4/BA/5 and others:
- For this purpose, immune cells were isolated from the peripheral blood of the subjects and the production of cytokines and the antiviral activity of memory T lymphocytes were measured in response to different “omicron” proteins of different variants;
- the results showed that memory T cells from these patients showed an increased response not only to the BA.2 strain, but also to the later omicron strains BA.4 and BA.5. Having suffered from a perforated infection, these patients’ immune systems were strengthened to fight future strains of the same virus;
- The scientists also discovered a specific part of the adhesion protein that is the main cause of the observed increase in memory T cells.
These results suggest that once a person recovers from a breakthrough Omicron infection, they are unlikely to ever suffer severe symptoms of COVID-19 caused by future new variants of the virus, the scientists note.
Thus, in response to the constant emergence of new variants of the virus, people’s bodies have adapted to combat future strains of the virus, the researchers conclude.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.