The scientists studied a cohort of 129 healthcare workers at high risk of an infection for 16 weeks and found that 57 never tested positive for the virus. When they looked to see what their immune systems were doing, they discovered they had mounted a robust T-cell response to Covid-19, suggesting they had encountered the virus but managed to shake it off. Crucially, the T-cells had ramped up targeted areas of the genetic code shared by both colds and Covid-19. The T-cells were so effective in clearing out the infection that the healthcare workers never developed antibodies to the disease. Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology at UCL, said: The evidence points to protection originating from prior exposure to endemic common cold coronaviruses [HCoVs]. Latent infection to low levels of SARS-CoV-2 might also have played a role.
Common colds could prime the immune system to fight off Covid
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