Be returned from an infection from
rhinovirus
It gives superpowers against Covid: milder symptoms and less risk of getting sick.
Having faced a cold in the last month could offer short-term protection against Covid: the effect seems to favor above all children, who are also those who more often contract the cold, and this could be explained in part why this population has always seemed more protected by the most serious symptoms of the Sars-Cov-2 infection.
Raised barriers
THE rhinovirusthe viruses most commonly responsible for colds, trigger a decisive immune response with the production of interferons (proteins that exercise an antiviral action) in the respiratory tract: an activity that “prepares” the body to fight any other pathogens. For this reason, there has long been discussed, with alternate results, of their possible protective role against Covid.
The new work, published on Journal of Infectious Diseasesanalyzed the data of the study Human Epidemiology and Response to Sars-Cov-2 (Heros), who followed over 4,100 people of almost 1400 US families from May 2020 to February 2021. Participants of all ages had accepted to undergo nasal swabs regularly:
The researchers analyzed the data on over 10,400 repeated swabs of 1,156 adults and children; Therefore, they performed the sequencing of the ARA of 147 swabs collected before the infection by Covid and 391 other collected before and after a cold from rhinovirus.
Less mild infections and symptoms
Those who had had a cold in the previous 30 days was to have a 48% reduced risk of getting Covid. And in those who were facing Covid, having had a cold in the month before was a protective result, because it is linked to a viral charge (the concentration of viruses in the body) on average 10 times lower.
The analysis of the isolated in nasal swabs showed that a lower viral charge from Sars-Cov-2 was linked to the activity of 24 genes related to the production of antiviral defenses, 22 of which are linked to a recent infection from rhinovirus.
Children expressed adult levels compared to adults of this antiviral activation, and were also 2.2 times more at risk of adults of an infection from rhinovirus.
One virus chases the other
Frequent infections from rhinovirus They could therefore enhance this genetic profile that strengthens the immune defenses against Covid. “This does not mean that people should intentionally seek to take a cold,” explains Camille Moore, the main author of the study.
“But understand how a virus can influence the body’s response to another could help us develop new prevention strategies, especially for vulnerable populations”.
