How important are T cells in the fight against COVID-19?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-22 11:01

International

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T cells appear to play a critical role in fighting COVID-19 and should be a major focus for tweaking vaccines and treatments, according to international research. T cells are white blood cells tasked with responding to foreign substances like viruses once they enter the body, and researchers have used mathematical modelling to analyse the medical data of hundreds of COVID-19 patients to find out the role these cells have played at preventing death and helping clear the virus. The researchers say the model shows T cells play an even more critical role than antibodies at recovering from the virus, and simple health care activities that increase T cells in the body could help fight the virus.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Impairment of T cells’ antiviral and anti-inflammation immunities may be critical to death from COVID-19

Royal Society Open Science

Can COVID-19 be defeated? Can humans develop effective long-term immunity against the COVID-19 virus, and how? Using mathematical modelling to analyze the clinical data of hundreds of patients, this work finds T cells---one of the essential armies and the brain of our immune system, are likely to play the critical role in clearing virus and controlling disease. Excitingly, one can benefit the curing and prevention of COIVD-19 by improving T cell number, which can be potentially fulfilled in everyone’s daily life by doing meditation and health care activities to obtain long-lasting immunity.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Peking University, China

Funder: The research is funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation through award no. 1005586.

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