Exposure to the common cold may contribute to pre-existing immunity to COVID-19, study finds

A new study has found that people who were exposed to the common cold coronavirus may also have developed some pre-existing immunity to the genetically related virus, Covid-19.

The study, led by researchers from Rutgers University and Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, can help bolster global infectious disease preparedness and vaccine development with their insights, according to a Rutgers press release.

The study examined the immune responses of two groups of people living in Lagos and Nigeria: healthcare workers at a university hospital and members of the general population from five different locations.

“Of the 83% of people in our study who were exposed to the common cold coronavirus, we found that their T cells cross-reacted with SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that people who have been exposed to these genetically related coronaviruses have immune responses that may be protecting them from future SARS-CoV-2 infections,” said Bobby Brooke Herrera, an assistant professor of global health at the Rutgers Institute for Global Health and lead author of the study along with Sulaimon Akanmu of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. .

The study researchers say their findings are unique because they examined people at a time during the pandemic when the vaccine was still being given, so data was collected on people before and after they got the shot.

Now the researchers hope to use what they have learned to develop a T-cell-based vaccine that could help protect against future variants of Covid-19.

“We are trying to understand if T-cell-based vaccines really provide cross-protection,” Herrera said. “We know that they can cross-recognize other coronaviruses, but we don’t know if cross-recognition really means cross-protection. If so, that will potentially lead to a novel strategy for developing a coronavirus vaccine.”

Four agencies believe the virus transferred from animals to humans, while two others believe the virus leaked from a laboratory incident.