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This week’s summary of some of the latest scientific studies on the coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 explore how childhood vaccinations could be essential to prevent serious illness, as does cigarette smoking. which cells are most vulnerable to the virus and how there could be longer-lasting immunity in COVID-19 patients than previously thought.
Childhood MMR vaccine can help prevent severe COVID-19
New data suggests that people whose immune systems have responded strongly to a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine may be less likely to become seriously ill if they are infected with the coronavirus. The MMR II vaccine, manufactured by Merck and licensed in 1979, works by causing the immune system to produce antibodies.
Researchers reported in mBio on Friday that among 50 COVID-19 patients under the age of 42 who received MMR II as children, plus their titers – or levels – of so-called vaccine-produced IgG antibodies directed against mumps were high. . viruses in particular, the less severe their symptoms are. People with the highest anti-mumps antibody titers had asymptomatic COVID-19.
More research is needed to show that the vaccine prevents severe COVID-19. However, the new findings “could explain why children have a much lower rate of COVID-19 cases than adults, as well as a much lower death rate,” said co-author Jeffrey Gold, president of the organization. World Cup in Watkinsville, Georgia, in a statement.
“Most children receive the first MMR vaccine around the age of 12-15 months and a second between the ages of 4 and 6. “
Immune protection against severe re-infections appears to be lasting
Regardless of detectable antibody levels, most COVID-19 survivors are likely to have lasting protection against severe COVID-19 if reinfected, through other components of the body’s immune response. which resemble the coronavirus in different ways, the researchers say.
In a study of 185 patients, including 41 who had been infected more than six months earlier, scientists at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology in California found that several branches of the immune system, not just antibodies, recognized the coronavirus for at least eight months.
For example, so-called memory B cells that can recognize the virus and produce antibodies to fight it were more abundant six months after infection than one month, they reported in an article published on bioRxiv prior to peer review.
The new findings “suggest that the immune system can remember the virus for years and that most people can be protected from severe COVID-19 for a considerable period of time,” study officials Shane Crotty and Alessandro Sette said.
Cigarette smoking increases the vulnerability of cells to COVID-19
Exposure to cigarette smoke makes airway cells more vulnerable to coronavirus infections, UCLA researchers found.
They obtained coating cells from the airways of five people without COVID-19 and exposed some cells to cigarette smoke in the test tubes. Then they exposed all the cells to the coronavirus.
Compared to cells not exposed to smoke, cells exposed to smoke were two or even three times more likely to be infected with the virus, Cell Stem Cell researchers reported.
Single cell analysis of the respiratory tract showed that cigarette smoking reduced the immune response to the virus.
“If you think of the airways as the high walls that protect the castle, smoking cigarettes is like making holes in these walls,” said co-author Brigitte Gomperts Reuters. “Smoking reduces natural defenses, which allow the virus to enter and take control of the cells. “
Researchers examine coronavirus-infected cells
Cells infected with the new coronavirus die within a day or two, and researchers have found a way to see what the virus is doing to them.
By integrating different imaging techniques, they saw the virus create “virus copy factories” in cells that look like balloon lumps. The virus also disrupts cellular systems responsible for secreting substances, researchers at Cell Host & Microbe reported.
It also rearranges the “cytoskeleton”, which gives the cells their shape and “acts as a rail system to allow the transport of various loads within the cell,” said co-author Ralf Bartenschlager of the “University of Heidelberg, Germany. , to Reuters.
When his team added drugs that affect the cytoskeleton, the virus struggled to reproduce, “which tells us the virus needs to rearrange the cytoskeleton to replicate with high efficiency,” Bartenschlager said.
“We now have a much better idea of how SARS-CoV-2 alters the intracellular architecture of the infected cell and this will help us understand why cells die so quickly.”
The Zika virus causes similar cell changes, he said, it would be possible to develop drugs for Covid-19 that also work against other viruses.
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