Australian scientists say they have discovered how the human immune system fights the coronavirus. The results of their research, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Medicine, show that the mechanism for overcoming the new viral infection is virtually no different from fighting the common flu. This means that the research can help in the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus.
To date, more than 190,000 cases of infection have been confirmed worldwide; the coronavirus has claimed the lives of 7,500 people. “This discovery is important because for the first time we really understand how our immune system fights against the new coronavirus,” says study co-author Professor Catherine Kedzierska. Many experts praised the study, which was conducted at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infections and Immunity in Melbourne.
The recovery of the majority of people infected with Covid-19 is a clear indication that the human immune system can effectively resist the virus. But how exactly does this battle take place? Australian scientists have identified four types of immune cells involved in this battle. The studies involved previously healthy volunteers who had a mild form of the disease and had not previously complained about their health.
Images of the lungs show them being cleared of infection as immune cells appear. For example, a 47-year-old woman from Wuhan, who recovered after 14 days, was admitted to one of the Australian hospitals. In an interview with the BBC, Professor Kedzirska explained that the researchers “fully explored the response of the patient’s immune system. Three days before the woman’s recovery, certain cells were detected in her blood. According to Kedzirskaya, around the same time, just before recovery, the same cells appear in the blood of people suffering from the common flu.
“We are very pleased with these results and the fact that we were able to document the presence of immune cells in infected patients the day before clinical improvement,” said Professor Kedzirskaya, adding that more than a dozen scientists worked around the clock for four weeks to achieve these results. “Knowing when the immune cells kick in can help determine what stage of recovery the patient is in,” says Bruce Thompson, Dean of Swinburne University of Technology.
In turn, the Australian Minister for Health, Greg, emphasizes that the researchers’ discovery can accelerate the development of a vaccine and potential drugs to treat this infection. And Catherine Kedzirskaya has already set herself a new task: to find out why the immune system reacts less strongly to the cause of the disease in the most severe cases. “This is the key to understanding what distinguishes those who have died from the virus or are suffering from a particularly severe form of the virus, and with this key we could understand how to save them,” says Professor Kedzirska.