Adults in the United States usually catch a cold once or twice a year. While these are usually mild, experts say the common cold can protect against more serious viruses.
How is it that some people do not get the Corona virus infection despite being exposed to the virus for a long time?
The study, which included Professor Ajit Lalvani, set out to test a theory. In this theory, it is stated that white blood cells called T cells, which the human body produces to combat common cold viruses, can also protect against Covid-19:
“T-cells triggered in people previously infected with Corona viruses that cause common cold, which we can call distant relatives of SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, can cross-recognize SARS-CoV-2 and attack it. We set out to test it.”
The study began in September 2020, before mass vaccinations and millions of people contracted Covid-19.
Scientists tested blood samples from 52 people living in the same household with someone infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Corona. Half of them were caught with Covid-19, and half were not.
“T-cells found in those previously infected with the common cold-causing strain of the Corona virus attacked SARS-CoV-2 by cross-recognition. Those with such T-cells were not infected,” says Ajit Lalvani of Imperial College.
Current vaccines are designed to create an immune response in the body that targets spike proteins outside of the Corona virus.
“In contrast, we discovered that these protective T-cells target internal proteins in the core of the virus, and these proteins are much less variable,” Lalvani said. “So our discovery lays out the plan to produce a universal T-cell-triggered vaccine that will protect against all current and future Covid variants.”
Although it is an exciting approach, the production of such a vaccine is still a remote possibility.
On the other hand, the authors of the report say that no one should rely on the common cold infection to develop immunity against Corona, and that vaccines still provide the best protection.