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Coronavirus prevention: Vitamin C, vitamin D and other key nutrients to keep your immune system healthy  |  Photo Credit: iStock Images

New Delhi: As the threat of the novel coronavirus infection continues to spread worldwide, having an optimally functioning immune system is more important than ever. In fact, some experts advise that taking supplements containing vitamin C and vitamin D may help boost immunity to fight COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. The good news is, following a healthful, balanced diet consisting of a variety of foods loaded with nutrients and antioxidants can help strengthen your immunity.

The food you eat can have an impact on your thoughts, action, behaviour, mood, temper and well-being. Similarly, it also impacts immensely on the immune system. The immune system acts as a first line of defense towards the invasion by micro-organisms and foreign bodies. Eating a well-balanced diet loaded with essential macro and micronutrients is very important to build strong immunity. But, did you know the role diet plays in keeping your immune system healthy?

The role of nutritional support for immune function can be traced back to 1800 BC when studies proved that malnourishment leads to poor immune outcome. For instance, proteins, as we know are considered to be the building blocks of life. They also make up hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, immune cells and antibodies. Similarly, the carbohydrates serve as a quick fuel and lipids acts as a reserved energy. Also, micronutrients like vitamins, minerals and water are equally important. Focusing on nutrition, regular physical activity, stress management and getting enough sleep or rest can contribute to a stronger immune system.

Additionally, dietary interventionhas promisingly proven that it can improve gut health, which influences the balance of your immune system. Studies using animal models with gut inflammation have shown significant improvement in terms of reducing the gut inflammation using probiotics or certain fermented foods. Good hut health can help improve your immunity. The community of microbes that lives in the GI tract is collectively called as gut microbiota. Any harm done to this community will have a direct impact on health posing a serious risk of developing chronic illness.

Some micronutrients and dietary components like vitamins C, D, amino acids and certain minerals such as zinc, selenium play a specific role in maintaining an effective immune system, said Divya R, senior executive nutritionist, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Jayanagar, Bangalore. Here are some key nutrients that can help boost your immunity and protect you from infections, including COVID-19:

Protein: Plays a vital role in bodys healing, repair and recovery mechanism. Also, antibodies and immune cells rely on proteins. Eating a variety of protein foods, including seafood, lean meat, poultry, eggs, beans and peas, soy products and unsalted nuts and seeds, milk and dairy products will help in maintaining optimal health.

Vitamins: A vitamin is a substance that makes you ill if you dont eat it. Among them vitamins A, B, C, D and E are considered to be playing a major role in boosting immunity. They act as effective antioxidants, antimicrobial agents, reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines and promote healthy gut microbiota. They also stimulate antibody formation and supports cellular function.

Sources of vitamins

Minerals: Zinc, selenium, iron, magnesium, copper etc, are very important for optimal immune system function. Sources include Whole grains, dal and pulses, seeds, millets, green leafy vegetables, poultry, eggs, fishes etc.

Probiotics: Probiotics are specific strains of live bacteria present in certain foods. They can help boost the immune system and inhibit the growth of harmful gut bacteria. Some probiotics have been shown to promote the production of natural antibodies in the body. Sources include fermented milk, yogurt, kefir and other fermented food products.

Prebiotics: Prebiotics stimulates the immune system by directly or indirectly increasing the population of probiotics in the gut. Sources are banana, barley, flax seeds, apple, garlic etc.

Water: Staying well hydrated is very important to ward off infections and also to eliminate toxins and harmful bacteria that may cause infections. Plain water is the best fluid. Other forms of fluids can be coconut water, lime water, buttermilk, soups, infused water, etc.

Always rely on these medicinal value of herbs and spices from your kitchen garden as a cure-all remedy. Herbs like tulsi, methi, ashwagandha, aloe vera, and spices like pepper, cloves, turmeric etc, are all antifungal, antibacterial agents loaded with antibiotic and antioxidant properties.

Supplementing regularly with these essential food constituents will help in lowering the risk of being infected as they help in boosting up the immunity against a wide range of disease-causing microbes.

Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purpose only and should not be construed as professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or a dietician before starting any fitness programme or making any changes to your diet.

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Coronavirus prevention: Vitamin C, vitamin D and other key nutrients to keep your immune system healthy - Times Now

By Paul Gill and Menno van Zelm, Monash University

The Oxford vaccine trial at the centre of safety concerns this week highlights the idea that peoples immune systems respond to vaccines differently.

We dont yet know whether reports of immune complications in one or two trial participants have been linked to the COVID-19 vaccine itself, or if they were given the placebo vaccine.

But it does highlight the importance of phase 3 clinical trials in many thousands of people, across continents. These not only tell us whether a vaccine is safe, but also whether it works for people of different ages or with particular health issues.

So what are some of the immune factors that determine whether any of the 180 or so COVID-19 vaccine candidates being developed around the world actually work?

An effective vaccine should generate long-lasting protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

This can be by generating antibodies to neutralise the virus and likely also by helping the immune system memorise and quickly respond to infection.

How vaccines work with your immune system to protect against disease.

We know, from developing vaccines against other viruses, that peoples immune response to a vaccine can vary. Theres every reason to believe this will also be the case for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Many COVID-19 vaccine candidates contain parts of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to stimulate protective immunity. However, there are many different ways of delivering these proteins to the body, and some may be more effective than others at stimulating your immune system.

For example, the Oxford vaccine combines the spike protein with another virus to mimic the actions of SARS-CoV-2.

Meanwhile, the candidate developed by the University of Queensland contains the spike protein packaged with another compound (an adjuvant) to stimulate the immune system.

Some people will likely need a follow-up booster shot to ensure longer-lasting immunity.

We may also see some vaccines delivered as a nasal spray. This may elicit a more effective immune response to COVID-19 in the upper respiratory tract, including the nostrils, mouth and throat.

Previous infections may prime our immune system to respond differently to vaccination.

For instance, the SARS-CoV-2 virus belongs to a large family of human coronaviruses, four of which are responsible for common colds.

Being exposed to these cold-causing coronaviruses, and developing immune memory cells against them, may mean a stronger or quicker response to a COVID-19 vaccine.

Some people have poor protective immune responses to COVID-19 vaccine candidates. These people may have existing immunity to the adenovirus used in some vaccines to deliver the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

In other words, their body mounts an immune response to the wrong part of the vaccine (the delivery mechanism) and not so much to the characteristic part of the virus (the spike protein).

Our genes play a large part in regulating our immune system.

Researchers have already seen sex differences, which are partly governed by genes, in the immune response to the flu vaccine. They have also seen sex differences in the immune response to COVID-19.

So larger clinical trials should help us understand whether men and women respond differently to a COVID-19 vaccine.

People with inherited immune deficiencies may also be unable to generate protective immunity in response to vaccination.

The composition of our immune system changes throughout the course of our lives, and this affects our ability to mount a protective immune response.

Infants and childrens immune systems are still developing. So their immune response may be different to adults.

Some COVID-19 vaccines may be more effective for children, or recommended for them, as we see already with the flu vaccine.

As we get older, changes in our immune system mean we cannot efficiently maintain long-lasting protective immunity; we are less able to make new antibodies in response to infection.

We already know older people are less likely to mount a protective immune response with the flu vaccine.

So we need the data from large trials to verify whether COVID-19 vaccines work in children and elderly people.

Diet, exercise, stress and whether we smoke influence our immune response to vaccination. So we can look after our immune system with a healthy lifestyle where possible.

There is also an emerging hypothesis that our gut microbes may influence our immune response to vaccination. But more research is needed to confirm this could occur during COVID-19 vaccination.

Paul Gill, Post-doctoral Researcher (Gastroenterology and Immunology), Monash University and Menno van Zelm, Associate Professor, Immunology, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The immune response to COVID-19 vaccines - Cosmos

A global push is on to develop a vaccine to slow the spread of COVID-19, and experts hope several will be ready in 2021. Yet even with one, the coronavirus is likely to remain with us for years, demanding long efforts to find a cure for those who still fall sick.

In humanity's millennia-long struggle against viruses, prevention with vaccines has been far more successful than treatment with drugs. In fact, modern medicine has come up with a true cure for only one viral infection. For many serious infections, the best approaches are a cocktail of drugs that throw speed bumps in front of the infection.

It's a lackluster medical armory, belied by the seeming simplicity of our viral foes.

"They can't live by themselves, they aren't independent, they can't process food, take in oxygen, reproduce themselves without the master support system of being the parasite inside a living cell," said Paula Cannon, a professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.

So why do viruses give humans so much trouble? Outside of the body, a vigorous hand-washing is enough to kill many. Inside, the immune system's long memory is enough to make short work of most.

It's when we run into a new virus that the problems start.

The coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is the latest in a procession of new infectious diseases that have surprised the world in recent years. The best hope against it is a vaccine, which can stop infections before they take hold.

A vaccine is, essentially, a shortcut to immunity. But if we don't have immunity and get sick, things get more complicated. Because viruses can't survive on their own, they hijack our cells to multiply. That parasitic dependence makes them hard to treat with most traditional drugs. A virus is so interwoven with its host that it's difficult to hurt one without hurting the other. SARS-CoV-2 infects the airways and lungs the very things we need to breathe.

That leaves an unappealing choice, according to Cannon. "I can kill the virus, but I would have to kill you to do it."

Some vaccines, such as for measles, have created enough herd immunity that the virus can no longer take hold and spread in the population. In the best case, as with smallpox, the shots have driven the disease out of the human host population and into extinction.

Treating an active infection is another matter. There's a pharmaceutical cure for only one virus: hepatitis C. Because of the "kill the virus, kill the host" problem, the best bet is often to slow the virus down enough that the body's own defenses can do their job.

"When we can't kill a virus, the best thing we can do is stop them from replicating," said Raed Dweik, chair of the Cleveland Clinic's Respiratory Institute. "All we can do is shorten the period of infection, not cure. Even when the infection is over, the patient is more recovered than cured."

Remdesivir, the only drug in wide use that targets SARS-CoV-2 itself, works by messing with the virus's ability to replicate. It causes errors when the virus tries to copy itself. It was also a product of luck: The drug was originally developed as a treatment for Ebola, but it wasn't terribly effective and the waning outbreak in Africa made it difficult for its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences Inc., to study.

Clinical trials have shown that remdesivir can help hospitalized COVID-19 patients recover more quickly. But it's not a cure, and it's unlikely there will be one anytime soon.

"It will take years to have potent and specific drugs that can stop coronavirus in its tracks," Cannon said. "The vast majority of drug candidates fail."

In the future, patients will likely get a cocktail of therapies that attack the virus and others that help keep them stable. Currently, remdesivir is part of a cocoon of care that includes the only other cleared therapy, the steroid dexamethasone, as well as standard fare like fluids, plus aggressive approaches when needed, including putting patients on ventilators. Other medicines are layered on top: blood thinners and experimental approaches to calm a potentially overactive immune system.

As new approaches reach the market, they'll be added to the mix. But for most people, any viral treatment will have to outperform an already formidable and existing approach: the human immune system.

Continued here:
When will there be a COVID-19 cure? Your body is still the best virus-killer - Crain's Cleveland Business

The severity of Covid-19 is generally mediated by the human body's immune response. Everyone's immunity is different which is why reactions to the virus are so varied and there are various genetic, environmental and chronic disease factors that can influence this response.

One such factor is obesity. Those who have a BMI of more than 40 are 2.6 times more likely to die from a coronavirus infection.

A new study published byEndocrine Society investigates how this condition exacerbates inflammation in the body, which, in turn, puts strain on the immune system.

Early studies of the virus took place in China, and there was no focus on obesity because it is so rare in that country. But that changed when the virus hit the US, a country with one of the highest rates of obesity in the world.

South Africa also has a high rate of obesity, making it important to understand the interaction between Covid-19 and obesity.

READ | Don't wait to lose weight: Shedding obesity in youth extends life

How does obesity affect the immune system?

Metabolic inflammation, or meta-inflammation, is a chronic type of inflammation caused by obesity due to increased tissue and circulating myeloid cells. These cells develop an immunosuppressive environment and have been linked to the promotion of tumour growth.

This meta-inflammation might be part of the reason why obese patients are so susceptible to severe Covid-19.

"While obesity and diabetes may complicate the delivery of supportive care in critical illness, regardless of the underlying disease, lessons learned from the interaction of obesity with other systemic inflammatory syndromes suggest that obesity modifies biologic factors related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the Covid-19 syndrome," explain the researchers.

They add that obesity also has the potential to do long-term reprogramming of the immune system through this chronic inflammation.

This isn't restricted to Covid-19; the syndrome can also make a patient more prone to other diseases like bird flu and bacterial infections. With global obesity rates expected to rise in the future, understanding endocrine, metabolic, and inflammatory shifts caused by obesity would be vital for future pathological treatments.

READ MORE | Scientists warn that lockdowns could increase levels of obesity around the world

Cytokine storms and macrophages

In severe cases of Covid-19, the coronavirus infection induces a cytokine storm that floods the immune system. It also does this by shifting monocyte populations in the body a type of white blood cell that can influence adaptive immunity and helps drive the infection throughout the body.

With meta-inflammation, cytokine levels are always at higher levels than normal, including chemokines. Throw Covid-19 into the mix, and you're left with a much more virulent attack on the body.

Another element increased by obesity and Covid-19 are macrophages.

"Macrophages from obese animals and humans have been described as metabolically active, M1 polarised, and pro-inflammatory with both regulatory and detrimental activity. These macrophages produce cytokines, chemokines, reactive oxygen species, and factors regulating fibrosis and metabolism."

A high fat diet morphs obesity myeloid cells into metabolically active macrophages, which in turn, has an impact on organs and hematopoiesis, the process through which the body produces blood cells.

Enhancinghematopoiesis, in turn, impairs the immune response to, for example, a viral infection. The increased cytokine production can also cause tissue damage when the storm is triggered.

READ | Canada moves away from weight to classify obesity

Respiratory system

Obese people also tend to have high blood sugar, called hyperglycemia, which can concentrate glucose in the lungs and the rest of the respiratory system. This helps colonisation and replication of bacteria, and also damages the intestinal barrier that protects us against infection.

"On top of the direct effects that obesity may have on macrophage function in infection, diaphragm excursion is also inhibited due to obesity, which restricts ventilation and can inhibit the clearance of pulmonary pathogens."

This also prevents the body from effectively identifying and killing off any bad bacteria, maintaining the infection for longer. For similar reasons, an obese person is then just as susceptible to a viral infection.

"Along with possible impairments in pathogen clearance, obese hosts are more likely to experience the breakdown of respiratory epithelium during a pulmonary infection, which leads to increased fluid in the airway space.

"This allows the pathogen to have the opportunity to more easily spread throughout the body and leaves the host with reduced lung function."

READ MORE |Obesity ups odds for severe Covid-19, but age matters

Other factors

ACE2 receptors one of the main entry points into cells for the coronavirus are also more prevalent in the fat cells of obese and diabetic patients. This might become a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 replication that increases Covid-19 severity.

The gut is also another factor to consider, as studies have proven the influence that its microbiota have on health and the immune system. Covid-19 tends to make changes in the gut that encourage more inflammation, but more in-depth research is needed.

It's important to note, however, that not all obese people suffer from meta-inflammation or necessarily develop other chronic conditions, like heart disease or diabetes. But if you're male, you're far more likely than obese pre-menopausal women to develop these conditions, which also helps explain men's susceptibility to severe Covid-19.

Vaccine efficacy

Being obese might also impact the effectiveness of a potential coronavirus vaccine.

Flu shots tend to not work as well for them, probably due to impaired T-cell function.

According to the researchers, this makes it vital that obese individuals are included in the vaccine trials to ensure efficacy in this high-risk group.

READ | Why can Covid-19 be so dangerous where patients are obese?

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The immune system's response to Covid-19 may be altered by obesity - Health24

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part letter.

So, we know that many people are getting near sleepless nights, not eating well and not exercising at all during the pandemic. Long-term stress and poor sleep can both result in dysregulation of the immune system in such a way that the production of good immune cells is suppressed and the amount of bad immune cells are upregulated. A cascade of events can create the setting of low-grade inflammation throughout the body and result in a decrease in the proper functioning of immunoprotective cells. This makes a person not only more susceptible to various infections, it also increases the risk of cancers, and chronic cardiovascular diseases (high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and heart diseases). We label a patient in this state as being immunocompromised or immunosuppressed. Maintaining an adequate amount of sleep is truly fundamental to keeping our immune system in a balanced equilibrium. The National Sleep Foundation has published recommendations for adequate sleep duration for all ages in order to maintain well-being. School-age children (6-13 years) need 9-11 hours, teenagers (14-17 years) need 8-10 hours, adults (18-64 years) need 7-9 hours, and adults over 65 need 7-8 hours.

Sleep experts also recommend that we stick to a regular sleep schedule, go to bed and get up at roughly the same time every day. We should not go to bed hungry or stuffed. Avoid consuming nicotine and caffeine due to their stimulating effects, especially in the evening. Even though alcohol makes us sleepy, it disrupts sleep later in the night and is to be avoided after dinner hours. We need to create a restful environment best is a cool, dark, quiet place. Avoid prolonged use of light-emitting screens before bedtime. We all benefit if our eyes and brains rest for 30 minutes before sleep with no TV, computer or cellphones. Regular daytime physical activity promotes better sleep.

Eating a well-balanced diet can modulate and improve our immune responses. There is science that indicate that some foods boost the immune system more than others. These include citrus foods (grapefruits, oranges, tangerines, lemons, calamansi, limes), red bell peppers, broccoli, garlic, ginger, spinach, yogurt, almonds, sunflower seeds, turmeric, green tea, papaya, kiwi, shellfish, oily fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel) and poultry (chicken and turkey). They contain vitamins C, A, B6, E and D, minerals (like zinc and selenium), iron, folic acid and probiotics. My overall advice is that variety is the key to proper nutrition. Eating right will help build a strong immune system.

There is an abundance of science supporting a compelling link between physical activity and the bodys defense system. Regular physical exercise has an overall anti-inflammatory influence through multiple pathways. Epidemiologic studies consistently show decreased levels of inflammatory biomarkers in adults with higher levels of physical activity. Physical exercise also helps us control our weight, reduce our risk of heart attack, help our body manage blood sugar and insulin levels, improve our mental health and mood, help keep our thinking, learning, and judgement skills sharp as we age, strengthen our bones and muscles, reduce our risk of some cancers and falls, improve our sleep and increase our chance of living longer

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data revealed that 94% of people who died with COVID-19 had other chronic health issues, which probably increased their risk of contracting the virus. I recommend that everyone, especially people with underlying chronic medical conditions, better their health and immune status to help fight an infection successfully.

It remains an enigma to many health experts as to why many people (at least 80%) infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic or just have mild symptoms, while others succumb from the same infection. This conundrum can probably be answered by how our immune system defends us with a positive impact or hurts us with negative contributions to the bodys ability to fight this novel and perplexing virus. With the COVID-19 pandemic, its particularly important to understand that we need to supplement the 3 W's of protection: wear a mask, watch your distance, wash your hands. We need more than protection. Prevention needs to become widely adopted in our community.

Dr. Ramel Carlos is a board-certified neurologist practicing in Guam for 18 years and a specialist in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology. He is also a pediatrician, a diplomate of the American Board of Disability Analysts and the editor-in-chief of The Guam Medical Association Journal.

Originally posted here:
A doctor's Rx: How to boost our immune system during the pandemic, Part 2 - The Guam Daily Post

Sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, or even shortness of breath. According to estimates by the rzteverband Deutscher Allergologen (DA, German Medical Allergy Association), around 20 to 30 million people in Germany suffer from allergies such as hay fever, a drug allergy, or a food allergy. And this trend is on the rise. Thes types of allergic reactions are usually due to the release of histamine, proteases, or cytokines from cells of the innate immune system.

These so-called mast cells are activated by IgE antibodies. These make up the components of a specific immune response. If these antibodies are sensitive to certain allergens, they in turn activate the mast cells with each new contact. These then release histamines, proteases, or various cytokines. That person subsequently develops typical allergic symptoms. Up until now, however, the evolutionary background of this well-rehearsed system has remained unclear. Or why this system has survived throughout the course of evolution.

In a joint study by the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (AW), the Medical University of Vienna, and the Stanford University School of Medicine, researchers have come one step closer to finding the answer to this question. They have discovered that IgE antibodies, together with mast cells, are able to increase the bodys resistance to bacterial infections

The assumption has been around for a long time that the interaction of IgE with mast cells is not just negative for the body where allergies are concerned. Previous studies had already shown that mast cells play a role in the innate immune response to the venom of certain snakes and the honeybee. Building on these studies, scientists have now examined the importance of the interaction of mast cells and IgE antibodies in the defense against toxic organisms. Especially when dealing with pathogenic bacteria. They have published the results of the study in the scientific journal Immunity.

Because of its enormous clinical relevance and its broad range of toxins, the researchers chose the antibiotic-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus aureus as the pathogen model. This is considered one of the most feared hospital germs. As part of their research, they infected genetically modified mice with the pathogen. They also studied in vitro mast cell models in order to decode the functions of selected components of the IgE effector mechanisms.

It was found that the mice that had experienced mild skin infections with S. aureus developed specific IgE antibodies against bacterial components. This immune response made the mice more resistant to severe secondary lung or skin and tissue infections. Genetically-modified mice lacking the IgE effector mechanism, or mast cells, did not build up the resistance that is needed to fight severe secondary infections.

The authors write that these findings would suggest that the interaction of the IgE effector mechanism with mast cells, (which is often only recognized today within allergic contexts), might not only be pathological but also beneficial. The defense against toxin-producing pathogenic bacteria could therefore be an important biological function of the allergy module. Moreover, this function seen from an evolutionary perspective might be the reason why this immunological interaction has persisted throughout the course of human evolution. And this happens, despite the fact that it can even cause life-threatening reactions in those cases where there is a particular sensitivity towards other foreign substances.

Publication:

IgE Effector Mechanisms, in Concert with Mast Cells, Contribute to Acquired Host Defense against Staphylococcus aureus. Authors: Philipp Starkl, Martin L. Watzenboeck, Lauren M. Popov, Sophie Zahalka, Anastasiya Hladik, Karin Lakovits, Mariem Radhouani, Arvand Haschemi, Thomas Marichal, Laurent L. Reber, Nicolas Gaudenzio, Riccardo Sibilano, Lukas Stulik, Frdric Fontaine, Andr C. Mueller, Manuel R. Amieva, Stephen J. Galli, Sylvia Knapp, Immunity, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2020.08.002

Title picture: Not only allergies but also positive health benefits can result when antibodies and cells work together. CeMM/AW

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Allergic reactions as protection against bacterial infections - Innovation Origins

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced from Monday the number of people allowed to gather will be slashed from 30 down to six in a new clampdownto lower infection rates. Under the current rules, no more than 30 people can meet inside with up to one other household, but the new rules stipulate that six people from different households will be allowed to congregate. Yesterday, 3,497 new cases were announced and researchers at Imperial College London have said infection rates are doubling roughly every 7.7 days in England, with the reproduction rate as high as 1.7.

But scientists have also been studying the effects of diet, exercise, psychological stress and other factors on the immune response to COVID-19, next months issue of BBC Science Focus Magazine reveals.

Public Health England recently released a report on how being obese or excessively overweight increases the risk of illness and death from COVID-19 and theres some evidence of a link between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 severity.

But having high blood pressure, heart disease, or smoking, can reportedly increase the likelihood that youll be hospitalised from COVID-19.

Theimmune systemis a complex network of cells and proteins that defends the body against infection, and a healthy one can be key to defeating invading pathogens.

Dr Madhvi Menon, a research fellow at Manchester Universitys Institution of Immunology and infection, told BBC Science Focus: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise, a balanced diet, adequate sleep and minimal stress has been shown to keep our immune systems strong and healthy.

But very little is currently known about ways to avoid the severest form of COVID-19.

A healthy immune system will not necessarily keep the virus out of our bodies, but it could be vital against the fight.

According to health experts, 80 percent of the bodys immune system is in the gut.

The Mediterranean diet, with its emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fatty fish, nuts, and olive oil has been tipped by experts.

READ MORE:Coronavirus: Chilling psychological impact of mask-wearing laid bare

The diet provides large amounts of vitamins, including vitamins A, B2, B6 and B12, C, D, and E.

It also provides zinc, iron, selenium, and other plant-derived minerals and antioxidants.

Recent studies suggest that older adults on a Mediterranean-style diet who also took a vitamin D supplement had higher levels of T cells whichplay a central role in the immune response.

But it is also important to be sceptical of products that claim to magically boost the immune system or fight off the virus.

During the Spanish flu in 1918 which killed up to 50 million people a number of bizarre methods were tipped to improve the bodys defence from the virus.

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And the recent outbreak has been no different.

Social media has been filled with bizarre claims from eating garlic to drinking silver to help protect against COVID-

US President Donald Trump has also fuelled controversy by promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine, claiming he was taking it daily.

The drugwas granted emergency use authorisation by the FDA in March after Trump backed it as a game-changer in the pandemic.

Shortly after, the President said: What do you have to lose? Take it.

In April, the FDA issued a warning about the risk of cardiac arrhythmias in some patients, reiterating that it should only be used in selected cases where there is a serious medical need.

The best way to prevent getting the virus in the first place is to adhere to the guidance on social distancing, wearing masks and hand-washing.

The Government website explains: The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are recent onset of a new continuous cough, high temperature or a loss of, or change in, normal sense of taste or smell.

Wash your hands more often than usual, for 20 seconds using soap and water or hand sanitiser, particularly after coughing, sneezing and blowing your nose, before you eat or handle food, or when you get to work or arrive home.

Cover your mouth and nose with disposable tissues when you cough or sneeze.

If you do not have a tissue, sneeze into the crook of your elbow, not into your hand.

Dispose of tissues into a disposable rubbish bag and immediately wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or use hand sanitiser.

It also explains the importance of wearing a face mask, unless you are exempt and social distancing.

It adds: You must wear a face-covering by law in some public places unless you have a face-covering exemption because of your age, health or another condition.

Social distancing, hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes, remain the most important measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Clean and disinfect regularly touched objects and surfaces using your regular cleaning products to reduce the risk of passing the infection on to other people.

You can subscribe to BBC Science Focus Magazine here.

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Coronavirus: How to boost immune system and 'lower risk of virus' as cases soar in UK - Express

MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), the world's largest private funder of food allergy research, has awarded a three-year, $15 million grant to the Food Allergy Science Initiative(FASI) at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to support a three-year project "Untangling Neuroimmune Communications in Food Allergy." This grant was made possible by the support of FARE board member Christine Olsen and her husband Robert Small, with funds matched by FARE.

The interdisciplinary research team, led by world renowned immunologist, Ruslan Medzhitov, includes scientists from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, Yale School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mount Sinai, and Rockefeller University.

Food allergies occur when the body's immune system mistakenly identifies a food protein as a threat and triggers a response. When the immune system then attacks the food, the resulting allergic reaction can cause mild, localized symptoms, or it can affect multiple organ systems in the potentially life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis. Once considered rare, food allergy has become increasingly common in recent decades and now affects one in 10, or 32 million, Americans, resulting in an emergency room visit once every three minutes in the U.S.

"Thirty-two million Americans currently live with potentially life-threatening food allergies, affecting up to 85 million families across the country every day, and while this number continues to climb, there is so much more we do not yet understand about the complexities of this disease," explains Bruce Roberts, Chief Research, Science and Innovation Officer of FARE. "This innovative project between FARE and FASIwill advance the field of food allergy research in exciting new directions that may reveal new potential targets for treatments."

Currently, diagnosing and treating food allergy is a major challenge: allergic reactions are the primary means of diagnosis, and treatment is limited to avoiding known allergy-causing foods and epinephrine injections, which are only administered once an allergic reaction has been triggered. Understanding the basic mechanisms that drive the allergic response to food is necessary for developing new treatments.

Using a suite of innovative molecular tools developed over the last decade, the project is structured around three primary goals:

"The interplay of the brain, the gut and the immune system is largely uncharted territory for researchers," Ruslan Medzhitov, director of FASI, principal investigator on the grant and the Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine as well as an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "As we map these connections, we expect to find hidden details that no one has anticipated and leads for diagnostics and therapeutics that will ultimatelymake life safer and simpler for children and adults with food allergies."

FARE's grant to the Broad Institute will enable researchers to identify and explore how the brain, digestive system, and nervous system together examine foodin the gut and determine whether or notto trigger an allergic reaction. Understanding this crucial decision-pointis key to developing treatments someday that can stop an allergic reaction before it even happens.

This work will also address other important questions, including why some individuals can develop allergy-related antibodies to foods without having reaction symptoms and why symptoms vary so widely among allergic individuals, and even from one reaction to the next.

"We will likely uncover a potential treasure trove of clinically relevant insights," said Ramnik Xavier, one of the scientific leaders of FASI. "Once we know where the key players are positioned in healthy gut tissue, we can identify, understand and ultimately manage their organizational changes in food allergy." Xavier is a core institute member of the Broad Institute, director of the immunology program at Broadand member of the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"We now strongly believe that understanding this interplay between the nervous and immune systems will lead us to the true culprits of food allergy and develop the diagnostics and treatments that will save lives," said Vijay Kuchroo, institute member of the Broad, the Samuel L. Wasserstrom Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and senior scientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Kuchroo is also on the FASI scientific leadership team.

FASI supports foundational research that aims to transform the field of food allergy science and lead to new therapies and cures. We currently have a national network of scientists at leading labs working collaboratively on this mission. FASI convenes researchers from a variety of disciplines, broadening beyond traditional allergy researchers to include other fields such as gastroenterology, neuroscience, engineering and immunology. Bringing together such a diverse team of specialists, many of whom have been instrumental in pioneering new technologies like single-cell sequencing, will help researchers find innovative solutions that overcome the fundamental hurdles of food allergy research.

About FAREFARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) is the world's leading food allergy advocacy organization and the largest private funder of food allergy research. Our mission is to improve the quality of life and the health of individuals with food allergies, and to provide them hope through the promise of new treatments. FARE is transforming the future of food allergy through innovative initiatives that will lead to increased awareness, new and improved treatments and prevention strategies, effective policies and legislation and novel approaches to managing the disease. For more information, please visit http://www.foodallergy.org. To join FARE's transformative five-year fundraising and awareness campaign, Contains: Courage, supporting families living with food allergies and educating ALL communities about the disease, visit http://www.foodallergy.org/containscourage.

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https://www.foodallergy.org

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FARE To Grant $15m To The Broad Institute Of MIT And Harvard To Decipher Brain-Gut Connections In Food Allergy - PRNewswire

The leading infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci recommends taking your vitamins now that school has started and flu season is nearing.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gavean Instagram Live interview with the actress Jennifer Garner on Thursday in which he specifically suggested taking vitamin D and C supplements and said he took them himself.

"If you're deficient in vitamin D, that does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection.I would not mind recommending, and I do it myself, taking vitamin D supplements," he said. "The other vitamin that people take is vitamin C because it's a good antioxidant, so if people want to take a gram or so of vitamin C, that would be fine."

There's a large body of research supporting Fauci's recommendations. Studies suggest vitamin D and C are your best bet for supplementing immune health. However, many of the other products sold for this purpose are useless or worse.

Extensive evidence has linked vitamin D deficiency to greater risk of infection, particularly from respiratory diseases like COVID-19.

That's led many researchers to investigate the use of vitamin D supplements to help prevent or lessen the effects of the coronavirus. While the findings are somewhat contentious, since researchers don't fully understand if vitamin D supplements can cause better health outcomes, studies have consistently linked vitamin D deficiency to greater risk of severe infection.

And many people are deficient in vitamin D, especially while sheltering indoors during the pandemic or in darker winter months, since our bodies naturally produce the nutrient in response to sunlight.

People with darker skin may be particularly susceptible, since melanin can slow the process of producing vitamin D. As a result, there's evidence certain people could benefit from supplementing it.

Similarly, vitamin C is awell-documented antioxidant, and getting enough of it is crucial for a healthy immune system. It hasn't been shown to prevent disease, but there's some evidence it may make it easier for people to recover from illnesses such as the common cold.

However, neither of these supplements is a cure-all, and too much of either can have serious side effects.

Fauci still recommends masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene as the best practices for keeping yourself and others safe.

Aside from vitamin D and C, there's little evidence that pills, powders, plants, or potions can make a significant difference in warding off illness.

Garner asked if concerned parents could help boost children's immune systems by giving them more spinach, elderberry, or other supplements.

"The answer, to the dismay of many, is no," Fauci said.

Despite this, many products claim to boost your immune system. These are at best a waste of money and at worst can have harmful side effects.

Colloidal silver, for instance, is commonly touted to cure or prevent disease, but there's no evidence it works, and it can interfere with common medications, cause kidney damage, and even permanently turn your skin blue-gray.

Chlorine dioxide, advertised as "miracle mineral solution," is even more dangerous. Chemically speaking, the product is industrial bleach, and drinking it can cause liver failure, extremely low blood pressure, and other toxic effects.

More innocuously, many herbal remedies or vitamins are expensive, and there's no evidence they provide benefits to otherwise-healthy people.

As such, Fauci recommends ditching any other immune-boosting products, and science is on his side.

"Forget about them," he said. "Any of the other concoctions and herbs I would not do."

Read more:

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Wearing a mask doesn't reduce your oxygen levels, and 6 other mask myths you should stop believing now

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Fauci says he takes vitamin D and C supplements, which boost immunity - Insider - INSIDER

A new study, led by neuroscientists from Stanford University, has homed in on the specific brain circuit responsible for stress-induced insomnia. The research suggests this same circuit is responsible for stress-related immune system dysfunction, pointing to a close relationship between stress, insomnia and weakened immunity.

It is well known that psychosocial or environmental stress can lead to immune system abnormalities. Insomnia is also commonly associated with stress. But ... do these two stress-induced conditions share the same neural circuitry?

This sort of stress-induced insomnia is well known among anybody thats tried to get to sleep with a looming deadline or something the next day, says Jeremy Borniger, one of the authors on the new study. And in the clinical world, its been known for a long time that chronically stressed patients typically do worse on a variety of different treatments and across a variety of different diseases.

Using a transgenic mouse model, the researchers first pinpointed a cluster of neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus responsible for the stress-induced release of cortisol. Activity in this brain area was found in stimulate a nearby cluster of neurons in the lateral hypothalamus. This area in the lateral hypothalamus was seen to elicit a kind of hyperarousal associated with insomnia.

Using optogenetics the researchers could either block this novel neural circuit, causing the mice to sleep comfortably after exposure to a stressful experience, or specifically activate the stress-responsive neurons and watch the animals immediately wake from slumber.

It seems like its a pretty sensitive switch, in that even very weak stimulation of the circuit can drive insomnia, adds Borniger.

The researchers then looked closely at the effects of stimulating this stress-induced neural pathway on immune system activity. Peripheral immunosuppression was indeed triggered by this same neural pathway. This suggests the effect stress has on both wakefulness and the immune system is, in part, related to this initial, cortisol-releasing, neural pathway.

Borniger says understanding how stress triggers both insomnia and immunosuppression helps researchers look to novel treatments for a number of autoimmune diseases. Interfering with this brain circuit could offer new ways to treat disease. And, of course, new ways to potentially reduce the negative effects of stress on our sleep.

"I'm really interested in how we can manipulate distinct circuits in the brain to control not just the immune system at baseline, but in disease states like inflammatory bowel disease or in cancer or in psoriasisthings that are associated with systemic inflammation, says Borniger. Because if we can understand and manipulate the immune system using the natural circuitry in the body rather than using a drug that hits certain targets within the system, I think that would be much more effective in the long run, because it just co-opts the natural circuits in the body."

The new study was published in the journal Science Advances.

Source: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

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Brain circuit linking stress, insomnia and the immune system discovered - New Atlas

(Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part letter.)

The health and safety of our island community should be the number one priority of our government. The focus must include our physical and our too often overlooked psychological well-being. We are all the recipients of the current health directives - wear a mask, practice reasonable social/physical distancing and proper hygiene. These are efforts at protecting ourselves. There is something else equally important we can do. We also need measures to prevent severe illness if we do get infected.

We need to keep our immune systems functioning at peak performance. After almost all COVID-19 related deaths, we learn that the patients had other illnesses or conditions that weakened their ability to fight the infection and we refer to these as comorbidities. Even if we are in the greatest of shape physically, we should strive to boost our immune system, our internal defense system, to potentially help our bodies fight infections, especially COVID-19. I am not about to ask you to buy some sort of hocus-pocus immune booster concoction for $39.99 plus shipping. The reason those types of advertisements appeal to so many is that we are not often told of the immune boosting things we can do on our own. Much research has arrived at the same conclusions and recommended the same thing: managing our daily stress, getting enough sleep, eating a well-balanced diet and daily physical exercise.

The immune system is an armamentarium of cells and proteins that defend our body against infection. It safeguards us from invaders including viruses, bacteria, fungus and foreign bodies. Our internal warriors are composed of battalions of defenders, armies and specialized soldiers that attack the invaders. This is a truly complex intricate network of cells, antibodies and molecules which are labeled with names that look like highly secure passwords, such as CD8+, IL-1, IFN-, TNF-, TGF-.

Excess stress weakens the immune system. The science behind that statement is a mountain of research that supports the concept of small amounts of chemicals being released from the brain during stress. The weakening of our immune system from the released chemicals can be silent. The impact of the stress chemicals can be physical and thus more evident. Many have experienced this as acid reflux during stressful times at home or work. The brain sends the stress-related neurotransmitters (tiny chemical signals) to the nerves that control the muscle that keeps acid in the stomach. The signal causes the muscle to malfunction and the patient feels it as heartburn. Yes, clearly stress can have a significant impact on the function of our bodies. The silent impact on the immune system can be much worse than heartburn or stress-induced headaches.

All of us, to some degree, are stressed just by living during this COVID-19 pandemic and have been for the many months it has been around. Most are at least a little worried about themselves or a loved one contracting and dying from the virus. This is compounded by the plethora of the psychosocial and economic impacts of the pandemic we see every day. Most are making this worse by checking their phones for updates several times a day or more. The additional burden of unemployment, piles of unpaid bills, social isolation and increasing marital discord are felt in many homes. Current data show that divorce rates in the U.S. have soared by 34% during the COVID-19 pandemic with marriages starting to crumble just three weeks into quarantine. Newlywed separation has doubled. The overall prevalence of anxiety, depression, insomnia and harmful alcohol use has increased. There are numerous reports in the psychiatric literature regarding COVID-19 related suicides. Social isolation and difficulty getting help have increased suicides rates in the USA and other countries. The Office of the Guam Chief Medical Examiner has recorded 26 suicides from January to August - more than have died from COVID-19. It may be getting worse as 15 suicides were recorded in the last 3 months alone.

Stress management does not need to be painful, overwhelm our schedules or ruin our budgets. A daily 10-minute walk is a great place to start. Dont set an unrealistic goal. Just take a 10-minute stroll every day and take it from there. It is a good idea to avoid caffeine and alcohol. I am concerned about the use of alcohol to self-treat stress and using caffeine as a substitute for sleep. Nicotine consumption here I am actually saying that the goal is zero. Smoking is a surefire way to weaken your immune system. If you are having trouble quitting, get help. Finally, talk to someone you trust. The more you communicate your frustrations of daily life, the better you will be able to handle them and the less likely your stress will negatively impact your immune system.

Dr. Ramel Carlos is a board-certified neurologist practicing in Guam for 18 years and a specialist in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology. He is also a pediatrician, a diplomate of the American Board of Disability Analysts and the editor-in-chief of The Guam Medical Association Journal.

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A doctor's Rx: How to boost our immune system during the pandemic, part 1 - The Guam Daily Post

Men's delayed immune-system responses to the coronavirus could put them at higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than women, according to a study from University of Washington researchers.

They found that, for women under the age of 60, their immune systems produced a near immediate defense against the virus. However, for men of all ages, it took an average of three days for their bodies to deploy T cells (white blood cells that sense and destroy virus-infected cells)to fight the novel coronavirus.

The researchers came to this conclusion after looking at 430 COVID-19 nasal swab tests 176 from men and 201 from women which they collected from the University of Washington Virology Laboratory between March and August.

This study expanded on previous research, which found women who have COVID-19 (the disease caused by the coronavirus) tend to develop more T cells, which help the body kill coronavirus-infected cells, than men who have COVID-19.

The researchers said the new findings could help to explain why nearly twice as many men have died from COVID-19 than women.

The researchers' findings line up with previous research that suggests a person's sex affects how many virus-fighting cells a person develops when they become sick.

Females have greater amounts of the hormones estrogen, progesterone, and androgen than males, for example.

These hormones are believed to play a role in immune-system response when a person is sick.

An August study in the journal Nature found that women developed more coronavirus-fighting cells than men did, regardless of their age. For women, their age didn't affect how many cells they produced.

"We now have clear data suggesting that the immune landscape in COVID-19 patients is considerably different between the sexes and that these differences may underlie heightened disease susceptibility in men," Akiko Iwasaki, senior author of the August study, said in a press release.

The new study comes with caveats. The researchers of the new study said that their experiment should be duplicated with other bodily fluid samples, since nose swabs aren't the most effective way to test a person's immune response.

Additionally, factors like smoking and preexisting health conditions, not just a person's sex, can make them more susceptible to severe COVID-19 symptoms. Therefore, researchers can't definitively say whether sex created the delayed immune response in men.

Still, the findings suggest men and women's bodies respond differently when they're infected, and that could mean they need different approaches to treatment too.

As Iwasaki told the New York Times, "natural infection is clearly failing" men, who tend to have worse symptoms and higher mortality rates than women when it comes to COVID-19. They might need a more doses of a coronavirus vaccine than women due to their delayed immune responses.

"You could imagine scenarios where a single shot of a vaccine might be sufficient in young individuals or maybe young women, while older men might need to have three shots of vaccine," Marcus Altfeld, an immunologist at the Heinrich Pette Institute in Germany, told the New York Times.

More:
Men may have slower immune response to coronavirus than women: study - Business Insider - Business Insider

As the world awaits the arrival of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, a team of researchers has come forward with a provocative new theory: that masks might help to crudely immunize some people against the virus.

The unproven idea, described in a commentary published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, is inspired by the age-old concept of variolation, the deliberate exposure to a pathogen to generate a protective immune response. First tried against smallpox, the risky practice eventually fell out of favor, but paved the way for the rise of modern vaccines.

Masked exposures are no substitute for a bona fide vaccine. But data from animals infected with the coronavirus, as well as insights gleaned from other diseases, suggest that masks, by cutting down on the number of viruses that encounter a persons airway, might reduce the wearers chances of getting sick. And if a small number of pathogens still slip through, the researchers argue, these might prompt the body to produce immune cells that can remember the virus and stick around to fight it off again.

You can have this virus but be asymptomatic, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, and one of the commentarys authors. So if you can drive up rates of asymptomatic infection with masks, maybe that becomes a way to variolate the population.

That does not mean people should don a mask to intentionally inoculate themselves with the virus. This is not the recommendation at all, Dr. Gandhi said. Neither are pox parties, she added, referring to social gatherings that mingle the healthy and the sick.

The theory cannot be directly proven without clinical trials that compare the outcomes of people who are masked in the presence of the coronavirus with those who are unmasked an unethical experimental setup. And while outside experts were intrigued by the theory, they were reluctant to embrace it without more data, and advised careful interpretation.

It seems like a leap, said Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist based in Arizona who was not involved in the commentary. We dont have a lot to support it.

Taken the wrong way, the idea could lull the masked into a false sense of complacency, potentially putting them at higher risk than before, or perhaps even bolster the incorrect notion that face coverings are entirely useless against the coronavirus, since they cannot render the wearer impervious to infection.

We still want people to follow all the other prevention strategies, Dr. Popescu said. That means staying vigilant about avoiding crowds, physical distancing and hand hygiene behaviors that overlap in their effects, but cant replace one another.

The coronavirus variolation theory hinges on two assumptions that are difficult to prove: that lower doses of the virus lead to less severe disease, and that mild or asymptomatic infections can spur long-term protection against subsequent bouts of sickness. Although other pathogens offer some precedent for both concepts, the evidence for the coronavirus remains sparse, in part because scientists have only had the opportunity to study the virus for a few months.

Experiments in hamsters have hinted at a connection between dose and disease. Earlier this year, a team of researchers in China found that hamsters housed behind a barrier made of surgical masks were less likely to get infected by the coronavirus. And those who did contract the virus became less sick than other animals without masks to protect them.

A few observations in humans seem to support this trend as well. In crowded settings where masks are in widespread use, infection rates seem to plummet. And although face coverings cannot block all inbound virus particles for all people, they do seem to be linked to less illness. Researchers have uncovered largely silent, symptomless outbreaks in venues from cruise ships to food processing plants, all full of mostly masked people.

Data linking dose to symptoms have been gathered for other microbes that attack the human airway, including influenza viruses and the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.

But despite decades of research, the mechanics of airborne transmission largely remain a black box, said Jyothi Rengarajan, an expert in vaccines and infectious disease at Emory University who was not involved in the commentary.

That is partly because it is difficult to pin down the infectious dose required to sicken a person, Dr. Rengarajan said. Even if researchers eventually settle on an average dose, the outcome will vary from person to person, since factors like genetics, a persons immune status and the architecture of their nasal passages can all influence how much virus can colonize the respiratory tract.

And confirming the second half of the variolation theory that masks allow entry to just enough virus to prime the immune system might be even trickier. Although several recent studies have pointed to the possibility that mild cases of Covid-19 can provoke a strong immune response to the coronavirus, durable protection cannot be proven until researchers gather data on infections for months or years after these have resolved.

On the whole, the theory has some merits, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University who was not involved in the commentary. But Im still pretty skeptical.

It is important to remember, she said, that vaccines are inherently less dangerous than actual infections, which is why practices like variolation (sometimes called inoculation) eventually became obsolete. Before vaccines were discovered, doctors made do by rubbing bits of smallpox scabs or pus into the skin of healthy people. The resulting infections were usually less severe than smallpox cases caught the typical way, but people definitely got smallpox and died from variolation, Dr. Rasmussen said. And variolation, unlike vaccines, can make people contagious to others.

Dr. Gandhi acknowledged these limitations, noting that the theory should not be construed as anything other than that a theory. Still, she said, Why not drive up the possibility of not getting sick and having some immunity while were waiting for the vaccine?

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A New Theory Asks: Could a Mask Be a Crude Vaccine? - The New York Times

A new study suggests immune responses to coronavirus in severely ill and critically ill patients are as strong or stronger than those of patients with milder illness. This adds to the evidence that the immune system itself is to blame for the most life-threatening form of the infection.

Immune cells known as T cells are responsible for recognizing pathogens, killing infected cells, and recruiting other branches of the immune system to combat infections.

However, according to the new study, T cell responses to the new coronavirus in critically ill patients appear to be just as robust as those with a less severe form of the illness.

The finding reinforces the conclusion that an inadequate immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, is not responsible for critical illness and death. Rather, an excessive immune response is to blame.

Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.

The team of researchers, led by Marien Hospital Herne and Ruhr-Universitt Bochum in Herne, Germany, compared the T cell responses of 28 COVID-19 patients during the acute phase of the infection and after recovery in survivors.

Of these infections, 7 were categorized as moderate, 9 were severe, and 12 were critical.

The scientists measured the concentration of two T cell types in blood samples from each patient: helper T cells and killer or cytotoxic T cells.

They also analyzed the strength of these cells responses to three distinct parts of the virus: the three proteins that make up its spikes, its membrane, and the shell or nucleocapsid surrounding its nuclear material.

In addition, the team measured levels of cytokines immune signaling molecules that T cells produce to combat infection.

They found that in patients with critical illness, the scale of their immune responses was similar or even higher, compared with moderate or severe cases.

There were also no apparent associations between successful clearance of the virus or death and changes in T cell responses.

The total number of specific immune cells, as well as their functionality, was not better in patients who survived COVID-19 than in those who died from it, says Dr. Ulrik Stervbo, one of the authors.

The study features in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

T cells migrate to a viral infection site, where they kill infected cells and select other parts of the immune system to neutralize the virus.

But these same T cells can also create a cytokine storm, which is responsible for a potentially fatal complication known as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Even though further studies will be necessary to understand the specific mechanism of COVID-19 development, our data suggest that excessive SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell response can cause [immune damage] leading to COVID-19-related lung failure, says lead author Prof. Nina Babel.

The new research adds to a growing body of evidence that excessive immune responses cause life-threatening COVID-19.

A major study published in June 2020 found that dexamethasone, a corticosteroid that suppresses the bodys immune response, saved the lives of around a third of all patients on ventilators over a 28-day period.

A more recent study, reported by Medical News Today, suggests that another kind of immune-suppressing drug, known as an interleukin-6 inhibitor, may help prevent severe COVID-19 infections from becoming life-threatening.

The authors of the new study acknowledge some limitations of their research.

They do not know exactly when patients in their research contracted the virus. Therefore, the slightly higher T cell response in critically ill patients may simply result from a longer period of infection.

In addition, they were unable to analyze the entire range of T cell subtypes and the cytokines they produce. So, it is possible that they missed protective or detrimental immune effects that impacted non-critical and critical patients differently.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

Continued here:
Critically ill patients have robust immunity to new coronavirus - Medical News Today

Peng Y, Mentzer AJ, Liu G, Yao X, Yin Z, Dong D, Dejnirattisai W, Rostron T, Supasa P, Liu C, Lpez-Camacho C, Slon-Campos J, Zhao Y, Stuart DI, Paesen GC, Grimes JM, Antson AA, Bayfield OW, Hawkins DEDP, Ker DS, Wang B, Turtle L, Subramaniam K, Thomson P, Zhang P, Dold C, Ratcliff J, Simmonds P, de Silva T, Sopp P, Wellington D, Rajapaksa U, Chen YL, Salio M, Napolitani G, Paes W, Borrow P, Kessler BM, Fry JW, Schwabe NF, Semple MG, Baillie JK, Moore SC, Openshaw PJM, Ansari MA, Dunachie S, Barnes E, Frater J, Kerr G, Goulder P, Lockett T, Levin R, Zhang Y, Jing R, Ho LP, Cornall RJ, Conlon CP, Klenerman P, Screaton GR, Mongkolsapaya J, McMichael A, Knight JC, Ogg G, Dong T. Broad and strong memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells induced by SARS-CoV-2 in UK convalescent individuals following COVID-19. Nat. Immunol.2020 Sep 04 [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1038/s41590-020-0782-6. PMID: 32887977. View full text

Link:
Robust T Cell Response and Immune Memory in Recovered COVID-19 Patients - Medscape

One of the major challenges facing gene therapy - a way to treat disease by replacing a patients defective genes with healthy ones - is that it is difficult to safely deliver therapeutic genes to patients without the immune system destroying the gene, and the vehicle carrying it, which can trigger life-threatening widespread inflammation.

Three decades ago researchers thought that gene therapy would be the ultimate treatment for genetically inherited diseases like hemophilia, sickle cell anemia and genetic diseases of metabolism. But the technology couldnt dodge the immune response.

Since then, researchers have been looking for ways to perfect the technology and control immune responses to the gene or the vehicle. However, many of the strategies tested so far have not been completely successful in overcoming this hurdle.

Drugs that suppress the whole immune system, such as steroids, have been used to dampen the immune response when administering gene therapy. But its difficult to control when and where steroids work in the body, and they create unwanted side effects. My colleague Mo Ebrahimkhani and I wanted to tackle gene therapy with immune-suppressing tools that were easier to control.

I am a medical doctor and synthetic biologist interested in gene therapy because six years ago my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, and the current available therapeutics usually fail to save patients. As a result, novel treatments such as gene therapy might be the only hope.

Yet, many gene therapies fail because patients either already have pre-existing immunity to the vehicle used to introduce the gene or develop one in the course of therapy. This problem has plagued the field for decades, preventing the widespread application of the technology.

Traditionally scientists use viruses - from which dangerous disease-causing genes have been removed - as vehicles to transport new genes to specific organs. These genes then produce a product that can compensate for the faulty genes that are inherited genetically. This is how gene therapy works.

Though there have been examples showing that gene therapy was helpful in some genetic diseases, they are still not perfect. Sometimes, a faulty gene is so big that you cant simply fit the healthy replacement in the viruses commonly used in gene therapy.

Another problem is that when the immune system sees a virus, it assumes that it is a disease-causing pathogen and launches an attack to fight it off by producing antibodies and immune response just as happens when people catch any other infectious viruses, like SARS-CoV-2 or the common cold.

Recently, though, with the rise of a gene editing technology called CRISPR, scientists can do gene therapy differently.

CRISPR can be used in many ways. In its primary role, it acts like a genetic surgeon with a sharp scalpel, enabling scientists to find a genetic defect and correct it within the native genome in desired cells of the organism. It can also repair more than one gene at a time.

Scientists can also use CRISPR to turn off a gene for a short period of time and then turn it back on, or vice versa, without permanently changing the letters of DNA that makes up or genome. This means that researchers like me can leverage CRISPR technology to revolutionize gene therapies in the coming decades.

But to use CRISPR for either of these functions, it still needs to be packaged into a virus to get it into the body. So some challenges, such as preventing the immune response to the gene therapy viruses, still need to be solved for CRISPR-based gene therapies.

Being trained as a synthetic biologist, I teamed up with Ebrahimkhani to use CRISPR to test whether we could shut down a gene that is responsible for immune response that destroys the gene therapy viruses. Then we investigated whether lowering the activity of the gene, and dulling the immune response, would allow the gene therapy viruses to be more effective.

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A gene called Myd88 is a key gene in the immune system and controls the response to bacteria and viruses, including the common gene therapy viruses. We decided to temporarily turn off this gene in the whole body of lab animals.

We injected animals with a collection of the CRISPR molecules that targeted the Myd88 gene and looked to see whether this reduced the quantity of antibodies that were produced to specifically fight our gene therapy viruses. We were excited to see that the animals that received our treatment using CRISPR produced less antibody against the virus.

This prompted us to ask what happens if we give the animal a second dose of the gene therapy virus. Usually the immune response against a gene therapy virus prevents the therapy from being administered multiple times. Thats because after the first dose, the immune system has seen the virus, and on the second dose, antibodies swiftly attack and destroy the virus before it can deliver its cargo.

We saw that animals receiving more than one dose did not show an increase in antibodies against the virus. And, in some cases, the effect of gene therapy improved compared with the animals in which we had not paused the Myd88 gene.

We also did a number of other experiments that proved that tweaking the Myd88 gene can be useful in fighting off other sources of inflammation. That could be useful in diseases like sepsis and even COVID-19.

While we are now beginning to improve this strategy in terms of controlling the activity of the Myd88 gene. Our results, now published in Nature Cell Biology,provide a path forward to program our immune system during gene therapies and other inflammatory responses using the CRISPR technology.

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CRISPR can help combat the troubling immune response against gene therapy - The Conversation US

In a season when we would usually be out cheering on our local sports teams, we are spending more time at home and repeating a new mantra: Wash your hands, practice social distancing, wear a mask.

But what if you could play offense instead of defense to fend off colds and viruses? What if adjusting your daily habits could build your immunity to help your body fend off illness, not only this year but every year?

Thats not only possible, says Katie Moksnes Bowman, its something she encourages her patients to do every day.

Stress is the number one way we increase inflammation in the body, says Moksnes Bowman, a licensed acupuncturist and Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM) for Northwestern Health Sciences University. She says inflammation can affect digestion, sleep patterns, pain, and your bodys immunity.

The key to improving your immunity is to reduce inflammation in your body.

The amount of stress that has been created from the pandemic is causing issues for people physically and emotionally, she says. In Chinese medicine, your digestion matters, sleep matters, your immune system matters.

When I am in practice with a patient, we talk about sleep, bowels, diet and movement at every single treatment. I really want to work with them where theyre at.

She sees patients ranging from professional athletes to seniors with mobility issues and everyone in between, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to treatment.

In Chinese medicine, we really view the body as a whole, she says. For example, if a patient has shoulder pain, Moksnes Bowman proceeds knowing the shoulder does not work independently from the rest of the body.

"The amount of stress that has been created from the pandemic is causing issues for people physically and emotionally. In Chinese medicine, your digestion matters, sleep matters, your immune system matters." Kate Moksnes Bowman, Northwestern Health Sciences University

If you are not digesting your foods properly, if youre not getting a good nights sleep, she says, I can do a ton of work on your shoulder, but its not going to repair well.

To help patients improve their health and build their immunity, she suggests small changes in diet and exercise, such as drinking enough water, reducing caffeine and sugar consumption, adding anti-inflammatory foods to their diet, and getting more movement every day.

I am not going to overhaul your whole diet, she says. If you do not want to stop eating pizza, I cannot make you stop eating pizza. But she might suggest that you try goat cheese on your pizza or sample a cauliflower crust.

I see myself as a reminder person, she says. I have patients come in and I say, How did your diet go this week? Did you eat something green? That means a plant, you know, not a green Jolly Rancher.

That question always gets a laugh, but the point is that little changes can make a difference in reducing inflammation and improving immunity.

When we are talking about diet and exercise, both of those things reduce inflammation and so does sleeping. Sleeping is a time to repair your body, Moksnes Bowman says. Asked what tops her list as the most important step, she says: Its not a hierarchy for me. Its more of a circle than a list, because all of those things are going to influence the next thing.

Small adjustments in diet and exercise are something patients do on their own between clinic visits, where Moksnes Bowman and other practitioners offer a range of therapies, from acupuncture and massage to cupping, Gua Sha, herbal medicine and even recipes to help improve your immunity.

If you have a lot of stress and are getting the common cold five times a winter, I would suggest you consider herbal medicine, she says. She advises against buying supplements in the grocery aisle. Seek a health professional who is specialized before taking Vitamin D, C or Elderberry syrup. They are all really good things, but theyre not always the right thing for everybody. Its always important to make sure you are taking the right amount.

Creating good sleep habits and a good sleeping environment are important, too. If you are on your phone or watching TV at night, the blue light from the device stimulates a part of the brain that doesn't allow you to fall asleep as well, she says.

Improved diet and exercise, combined with acupuncture or other types of Chinese medicine, can reduce inflammation over time by increasing blood flow and releasing endorphins, which Moksnes Bowman describes as that calm, happy hormone. That is our own bodys way of reducing pain in the body.

And that calm, happy hormone can lead to a good nights sleep, as described in a text from one of Moksnes Bowmans patients, who said: I cant believe how much my sleep improved by getting acupuncture.

The results arent anecdotal, she says. Sleep-tracking devices demonstrate that acupuncture can improve sleep; they record how well and deeply you are sleeping and if you are waking frequently during the night.

And while youre getting those extra ZZZs, your body is resting and fortifying its immunity.

One of the side effects of social distancing and working from home has been an increase in loneliness. Moksnes Bowman says that after a brief shutdown of the NWHSU Bloomington Clinic several months ago, she noticed two things when the clinic reopened: Patients who had missed appointments were in pain, and they were lonely.

People wanted to talk for so long, she says. I made my treatments a bit longer so patients could just talk, because people were feeling lonely.

She and other practitioners frequently refer patients to therapists, Tai Chi or Pilates instructors or others when they see an opportunity to help the patient move, relax or sort things out. Taking a deep breath and getting some release is also good for building a sense of well-being.

Think of amping up your immune system as the ultimate DIY project. Add some green to your diet, make sure you drink enough water, cut out some caffeine and get enough sleep for starters, and then add some acupuncture or massage. Together those steps can help fortify your immunity.

And keep in mind that this year, none of that replaces the need to frequently wash your hands, socially distance wherever possible and wear a mask when its not.

___________________________________________________________________________

Located in Bloomington,Northwestern Health Sciences Universityis a pioneer in integrative natural health care education, offering degree programs in chiropractic, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, massage therapy, medical assisting, medical laboratory programs, post-bac/pre-health, radiation therapy, and B.S. completion. At press time, itsBloomington clinicis open to the public and services include chiropractic care, Chinese medicine, massage therapy, naturopathic medicine, Bloomington Clinic offers integrative, natural care for the entire family in one location.

Each monththe Bloomington Clinic providers host a Provider Talks webinar that discusses topics from foot health to the ABZzzzs of Sleep to Promoting Health through the Seasons. Learn more about the webinar serieshere.

Telemedicine is a convenient way to care for yourself during these unprecedented times. Appointment times vary depending on the service. Providers are part ofNorthwestern Health Sciences University, a non-profit industry leader in integrative and natural healthcare education that provides access to the latest evidence and state-of-the-art technology so you get the natural solutions you truly need.

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Immune-Boosting Strategies to Stay Ahead of the Cold - Mpls.St.Paul Magazine

Since the first vaccine was developed in 1796, vaccinations have been phenomenally successful at preventing infectious diseases, and wiping out some altogether.

The latest video in our new YouTube series, Science with Sam, explains how vaccines work by training your immune system to recognise viruses and bacteria. Ever wondered how flu vaccines are made or why you need a new one every year? Click play to find out.

We also take a look at the unprecedented worldwide effort to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, and consider the challenges involved in making, testing and distributing covid-19 vaccines.

Tune in every week toyoutube.com/newscientistfor a new episode, or check back tonewscientist.com

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Most of us have never had to worry about getting smallpox, polio or diphtheria. A hundred years ago, these diseases were common killers. Now, smallpox is a thing of the past, while polio and diphtheria are very rare in most of the world. The reason? Vaccines.

Vaccines are a way of training the immune system for a big fight, so that when it comes up against the same opponent in the future, it knows exactly how to defeat it.

When you encounter a virus or bacterium for the first time, your body has a hard time fighting it. But over time, it learns to recognise the danger. Your immune system produces powerful proteins called antibodies that target and eliminate disease-causing microbes.

After you recover from an infection, specialised cells remain in your blood and keep a memory of that pathogen theyre called memory cells so the next time you face the pathogen, your body can quickly produce the right antibodies to fight it off.

Vaccines are a clever way of harnessing this mechanism to make us immune to a disease. They are made of weakened or killed viruses or bacteria that trigger an immune response, without making us ill.

The first vaccine was developed in 1796 by Edward Jenner. At the time It was commonly believed that dairymaids were immune to smallpox because they were commonly exposed to cowpox, which is a related but less deadly virus. Jenner decided to test this idea by injecting an 8-year-old boy with pus from a dairy maids cowpox lesions. A few months later he injected the boy with smallpox and found the boy was indeed immune. Who said ever said science was pretty?

Since then, vaccination programmes have been extremely successful at preventing diseases, and even eliminating some altogether. Smallpox, a disease that killed around 300 million people in the 20th century, was finally eradicated in 1980.

What about the coronavirus? Right now, there are over 100 vaccines currently in development. Scientists have moved incredibly quickly, considering we knew almost nothing about this virus at the start of this year. It normally takes years to get to this point. The fastest vaccine ever developed before was for Ebola and that took five years.

There are several different ways to make a vaccine being tried. One is to use whole viruses that have been inactivated so they cant cause a full infection. This might be done by killing them with heat.

Then there are vaccines that are made from live viruses, but they are weakened so they wont grow well in the human body. These vaccines tend to generate a strong and long-lasting immune response. For example the MMR vaccine, for measles, mumps and rubella, contains three live viruses.

Some vaccines put viral molecules into the body the important bits that our immune cells can recognise rather than whole viruses. This is how the injected flu vaccine works, and several groups are working on coronavirus vaccines like this.

The flu virus, or influenza, is a particularly difficult virus to vaccinate against, because there are many variants, or strains, that circulate. Its like the virus has many hats, and changes them often, and that makes it hard for our immune system to recognise it when a new one comes around. To produce the vaccine, the virus has to be grown in chicken eggs in a process that takes many months and millions of eggs. Every year virologists have to predict which flu strains are going to dominate in the next season, so that companies can make enough doses to meet demand. Sometimes they get it wrong, and even when theyre right, the mutating virus might mean the vaccine doesnt work as well as we hoped.

What we really want is a universal flu vaccine based on parts of the virus that dont change. Research on that is ongoing, but unfortunately it doesnt get as much investment as it needs

A relatively new approach that is being investigated is to make a vaccine containing the genetic instructions for making viral proteins, in the form of DNA or RNA. Once inside the body, the genetic code causes a persons cells to produce distinctive proteins normally found on the virus. These proteins trigger an immune response, and that creates an immunological memory.

The University of Oxford is working on a vaccine that uses a harmless virus to deliver the viral genes into cells. Its based on a virus that causes colds in chimpanzees, but its been genetically modified so that it cant reproduce in humans. The first clinical trials have shown that it is safe and induces a strong immune response.

For all the latest news on vaccines and the coronavirus why not subscribe to New Scientist? Theres a special discount code for you: get a 20 per cent discount by entering the code SAM20.

Despite all the effort being put into coronavirus vaccines, theres no guarantee that this will give us the magic bullet were looking for. Theres so much we dont know about how our immune systems respond to the virus and it may not even be possible to generate long-term immunity. A vaccine might mean you just get a bit less sick from the disease, and you might need a new dose each year.

Then there is the challenge of manufacturing and distributing billions of doses to every country in the world. It may take years to make enough to go around, raising tricky questions about who should be first in line. Some countries including the UK have made deals to get their hands on the first shipments, before the vaccines have been proven to work.

To defeat the pandemic, we need to make sure everyone who needs vaccines has access to them. We need to think globally, cooperatively, and act less like children squabbling over cookies.

To successfully wipe out a disease, a large proportion of the population needs to be inoculated, creating what is known as herd immunity, meaning there are enough immune people in the population to stop a virus from circulating. That brings us to another problem: some people are deeply sceptical about vaccines, which could be an obstacle to getting vaccination rates up to the levels required.

This mistrust has been fuelled by unfounded scare stories, such as the false idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism. All vaccines have to be rigorously assessed for their safety before they are used widely, and continue to be monitored after they are rolled out. Large clinical trials have repeatedly found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Despite this, rising anti-vaccination sentiment has led to a surge in measles in the US,with more than 1000 cases reported in 2019. And in a recent survey, 1 in 4 people in the US said they wouldnt take a coronavirus vaccine if it was available.

According to the World Health Organization, immunisations prevent an estimated 2-3 million deaths every year, in people from all age groups. By any measure, vaccines are one of the most successful innovations humankind has ever come up with. The coronavirus has reminded us just how vulnerable we are to infections, and that new diseases can emerge at any moment. Vaccines are our best hope for defeating them.

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What is a vaccine and how do they work? Find out in Science with Sam - New Scientist

As we continue to navigate the global pandemic more attention is being focused on a long sought after vaccine. Dr. Greg talks withJerry Woodward, a professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics who led a preclinical study at UK on one particular vaccine that shows promise. He also discusses the efficacy of producing a shot once a vaccine is tested and approved.

From UK Now:

PDS Biotechnology, a clinical stage immunotherapy company,has announcedpositive results from preclinical testing conducted at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, PDS0203.

PDS0203 stands out among COVID-19 vaccines currently in development because it includes a vaccine technology pioneered by PDS Biotech called Versamune, which stimulates important parts of the immune system to activate T cells.

Versamuneactivates an important immunological signaling pathway known to be essential in the induction of both anti-viral and anti-tumor immune responses.It also more efficient at presenting the disease-associated protein to immunological pathways that activate both CD8 (killer) and CD4 (helper) T cells that can recognize, kill and protect against a specific disease.

The most effective vaccines stimulate both antibody and T cells because both of those arms of the immune system are important to eliminate different viral infections, said Jerry Woodward, a professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics who led the preclinical study at UK. While many of the vaccines out there stimulate a good antibody response, they dont always activate T cells. Thats one of the key advantages of the Versamunetechnology.

PDS0203 combines Versamunenanoparticles with a protein recognized by the human immune system that is derived from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Prototype vaccines were tested at UK based on various recombinant SARS-CoV-2 proteins, including protein constructs created by UKs Protein Core lab.

In mouse models, PDS0203 showed strong activation of both protective antibodies as well as highly active and potent virus-specific CD8 killer and CD4 helper T cells within 14 days of treatment.PDS Biotech is submitting the findings to a peer-reviewed scientific journal and is expected to advance the PDS0203 vaccine to a phase 1 safety and immunogenicity clinical trial in humans.

To test the antibody arm of the immune response, mice are vaccinated and serum is separated from blood samples and tested for the amount of antibodies that will bind to the protein. To test the T cell arm of the immune response, T cells are isolated from the mice and tested for their ability to directly respond to peptides, or short pieces of protein, which are derived from the SARS-Cov-2protein. The results have been promising, Woodward says.

Vaccination with the recombinant proteins including the spike protein alone elicits lower levels of antibody response and almost no T cell response, Woodward said. When Versamuneis added, it dramatically increases both the antibody and T cell immune responses.

PDS Biotech contracts with expert labs like Woodwards for independent analysis of vaccine efficacy and research in the development of novel cancer therapies and infectious disease vaccines. Woodwards lab has been working with the company for several years, and recently received funding from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to complete preclinical development of a Versamune-based universal influenza vaccine to provide broad protection against multiple strains of the flu virus. This spring, the focus of Woodwards collaboration with PDS Biotech expanded primarily from cancer to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Versamunepresents unique potential for a vaccine to provide the level of immune response needed for protection against COVID-19, Woodward says.

Were optimistic an effective COVID-19 vaccine will be available relatively soon. There are probably over a hundred companies working on different vaccines and a lot of them are probably going to work," Woodward said."I believe that the Versamune-based vaccine due to its mechanism of action, simplicity and preliminary efficacy and human safety data, has excellent potential to be one of the more successful global vaccines.

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Meet A COVID Vaccine Researcher Here At UK This Week On Dr. Greg - WUKY

By Clare Wilson

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic there have been fierce debates over the science when to lock down, whether face coverings help and whether children are less susceptible, for example. The latest row is over whether we have been ignoring a crucial part of our immune response to the virus: T-cells.

This matters because if people have more immunity to the virus than we thought, then perhaps wecould abandon some covid-19 countermeasures. This was the case made by US President DonaldTrumps newest adviser oncovid-19, Scott Atlas at Stanford University in California. It has also been championed by others who argue against lockdowns. Is there any truth to the idea?

The immune system has two main arms to fight off pathogens such as the coronavirus. The one we hear most about consists of antibodies, small molecules that can recognise specific pathogens and target them for destruction.

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Antibodies against the coronavirus can be measured in the blood and so surveys quickly began to gauge the proportion of people who have them. But even in places hit hard by the pandemic, antibody levels arent high enough to give herd immunity, which occurs when enough people are immune to the virus that it can nolonger easily spread.

Researchers have estimated that 65 per cent of a population would need to be immune to achieve herd immunity, based on how contagious the virus is. In London, antibody levels were about 10 per cent between 26 April to 9 August. For England as a whole, as with many European countries, it is insingle digits.

These levels are widely taken as indicating how many people have been infected by the coronavirus. But the picture is more complex than this because of the second arm of our immune system, T-cells. Antibodies are sometimes seen as more important because they can stop viruses from entering the body. But once viruses make it inside, only T-cells can kill infected cells.

It takes a few days to obtain results for tests of T-cell activity against the coronavirus, compared with as little as 90 minutes for antibody tests, but a few groups have been testing on a small scale. They have found T-cells that react to the coronavirus in 10 to 50 per cent of people tested.

That doesnt necessarily mean that up to half the population isimmune to covid-19, says Alessandro Sette at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California. Some of these studies, including one by Sette and his colleagues, looked at blood donations given before the current pandemic, to test for pre-existing immunity to the coronavirus. Others examined samples from people with covid-19.

The most likely explanation isthat the pre-pandemic blood samples that tested positive were from people who had previously caught milder coronaviruses, such as the ones that cause colds, and their T-cells are reacting to the one that causes covid-19. It is probable, although by no means definite, that such people would get less sick with covid-19, but they could still get infected and pass it on to others, says Sette.

However, a Swedish study that tested about 200 people, including some known to have had covid-19 and their family members, found that those who had been sickest with covid-19 had more T-cell activity. This suggested it was directed against the current coronavirus, not old ones, says Marcus Buggert at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who worked on the study. But we cant say every single T-cell was induced by this new virus, he says.

As with antibodies, it is unclear how long T-cell immunity will last. I have seen [people] using our data to say we should open up society. I definitely do not want that, says Buggert.

T-cells could explain some puzzling anomalies in antibody testing. We have had people with confirmed cases of covid-19. Their antibody tests have come back negative, but their T-cells tested positive. That suggests antibody tests are not telling us the whole picture, says James Hindley at UKfirm Indoor Biotechnologies, which has developed a relatively fast and simple T-cell test.

The firms work hasnt yet beenpublished, and its test has sofar only been used on about 100people. But Hindleys team has found a few people testing positive for T-cell activity whose spouse had confirmed covid-19, yet they themselves somehow avoided it, as far as they know. It raises the question of whether the T-cells kept the virus at bay, says Hindley.

It is unlikely that questions such as these will be resolved until T-cell testing becomes much more common. Until then, says Hindley, the growing body of T-cell work should be seen as cause for hope but not complacency.

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