T cells to the rescue! According to studies, omicron variant combat

An unknown part of the immune system appears to protect against severe COVID caused by the omicron variant even as antibodies decline, helping to explain why a record wave of infections has not overwhelmed hospitals so far.

Vaccination boosted T cells – the body’s weapon against virus-infected cells – enough to defend against the omicron variant in independent studies by Erasmus University in the Netherlands and the University of Cape Town , in South Africa.

The findings could help explain why the wave of omicron cases has so far not led to an increase in mortality since South Africa until U.S and the United Kingdom. Unlike antibodies, T cells can target the entire spike protein of the virus, which remains very similar even in the omicron variant, which has a high level of mutation.

Dutch researchers analyzed 60 vaccinated healthcare workers and concluded that although their antibody response to the omicron variant was lower or non-existent compared to the beta and delta variants, the T-cell response remained largely unchanged. “which could balance the lack of neutralizing antibodies in the prevention or control of severe COVID-19 conditions″.

The study by the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town looked at patients who had recovered from COVID or had received vaccinations from Pfizer Inc. and his partner BioNTech SE o de Johnson & Johnson. The scientists found that between 70% and 80% of the T-cell responses they tested resisted against the omicron variant.

Recent weeks have provided evidence that the new variant may reduce the protection that vaccines provide, prompting governments to push for the delivery of booster doses to raise the level of antibodies that the variant can fight.

But immune protection has several layers. While antibodies block infection, purpose T they kill infected cells, preventing the virus from spreading and causing more serious disease, he wrote Wendy Burgens, one of the authors of the study from the University of Cape Town, on her Twitter account Virus Monologues. “They can’t stop someone from catching it, but they can minimize the damage that comes after“, He said.

T cells are white blood cells that can remember past diseases, kill virus-infected cells, and activate antibodies to prepare defenses. People infected with another coronavirus that was responsible for the SARS outbreak in 2003, for example, were found to still have a T-cell response to the disease 17 years later.