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Children’s immune systems appear to be better prepared for corona virus attacks.
According to a recent study, the cells of the upper respiratory tract are already on heightened alert and can quickly fight the virus in the event of infection before it massively multiplies. This probably also explains why children fall seriously ill much less frequently, as researchers from Berlin and Heidelberg report in “Nature Biotechnology.”
“We wanted to understand why the virus defense apparently works so much better in children than in adults,” explained Irina Lehmann, head of the Molecular Epidemiology group at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Berlin’s Charite University. In search of an answer, the scientists took some cells from the nasal mucosa of 42 healthy and infected children and 44 adults. They then analyzed, among other things, the activity of certain genes in the individual cells.
To be able to fight viruses quickly, so-called pattern recognition receptors must be activated, the researchers explain. And it was precisely this system that was more active in the cells of the upper respiratory tract and in certain cells of the immune system in the children than in the adults, the analyses showed. If a virus infects the cell, the body produces the messenger substance interferon, which initiates the fight against the virus. In adults, the early warning system is caught off guard, the virus is not fought as effectively and can spread more.
“We learned from this study that there are obviously not only risk factors for severe Covid 19 courses, but also protective factors,” Lehmann explained. He added that it is now possible to consider whether protective responses can be stimulated even before an infection occurs, potentially protecting at-risk patients from severe disease.
- source: k.at/picture: pixabay.com
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