It really helps to reduce new crown infections and have a cold!

▎WuXi PharmaTech Content Team Editor Before the new coronavirus affected the world, we had a lot of dealings with viruses that cause common cold
.

Some of these viruses are also coronaviruses
.

In the past two years, some studies have found that the challenge of the cold to the human immune system will allow us to generate some immune T cells that can more easily recognize the new coronavirus
.

Image source: 123RF A recent study published in Nature Communications by Imperial College London, UK, provides strong evidence for the protective role of these T cells
.

News from the research institute noted that the study is the first to examine how T cells previously induced by other coronaviruses affect infection likelihood in the context of exposure to the new coronavirus
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The researchers also said that the results also provide a blueprint for the next generation of universal vaccines, which are expected to be used to prevent the current epidemic, such as the Omicron variant, and the mutant strains that may be circulating in the future
.

Dr.
Rhia Kundu, the lead author of the research paper, mentioned: "Not all people exposed to the new coronavirus are infected, and we have been trying to figure out why
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" To this end, the research team began to work in September 2020.
At that time, many people in the UK had not been infected with the new crown and had not been vaccinated
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They analyzed the close contacts of 52 people infected with Covid-19
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All of these individuals were exposed to the novel coronavirus due to living with confirmed positive infected persons
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In the following days, through nucleic acid testing, half of them showed that they were also infected, and the other half remained uninfected
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The researchers, who took blood samples from the participants 1 to 6 days after they were exposed to the virus, first analyzed how many pre-existing T cells were induced in each individual because of the common cold, and these T cells had been shown to be effective against the virus.
The new coronavirus has cross-reactivity, that is, proteins that can recognize the new coronavirus
.

When the two groups of participants were compared, the uninfected group had significantly higher levels of cross-reactive T cells
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It is worth noting that these T cells target proteins inside the new coronavirus, not the surface spike protein that many new coronavirus vaccines target
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The researchers therefore believe that these internal proteins provide new vaccine targets that could provide lasting protection
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Because T-cell responses last longer than antibody responses, unlike antibody responses that decay in the months following vaccination
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In addition, as we now see in the Omicron variant, multiple mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein may lead to immune escape, in contrast to the internal proteins targeted by these T cells that tend to vary in various variants.
It is highly conserved in the body, with much fewer mutations
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So new vaccines targeting these proteins are expected to induce T-cell responses that provide broad protection
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The study's co-corresponding author, Professor Ajit Lalvani, an expert on respiratory infections, concluded: "Our study provides the clearest evidence to date that cold-coronavirus-induced T cells are protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection
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" Dr.
Kundu also cautioned that while this finding is important, it provides only one form of protection, and doesn't mean that having a cold doesn't make other protective measures less important
.

"The best way to protect yourself is still not entirely new crown vaccination, including vaccination booster shot
.
"
He stressed
.

Reference: [1] Rhia Kundu et al.
, (2022) Cross-reactive memory T cells associate with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID-19 contacts.
Nature Communications.
Doi: [2] T cells from common colds cross-protect against infection with SARS-CoV-2.
Retrieved Jan.
11, 2022, from https://