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- Researchers have found new evidence to explain why children are not so severely affected by Covid-19
- According to their results, the answer lies in the antibodies produced in children in response to infection with SARS-CoV-2.
- This makes it easier to remove the virus from their systems
The new coronavirus spares most children, and researchers in one study can find out why. According to their findings, children and adults produce different types and amounts of antibodies in response to infection.
Researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons wrote that the differences in antibodies suggest that the period of infection, as well as the immune response, is distinct in children. They also found that most children easily clear the virus from their bodies.
“Our study provides an in-depth examination of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in children, revealing a stark contrast to adults,” said Dr. Donna Farber, Columbia University immunologist and study co-author. , in a press release.
Dr Matteo Porotto, associate professor of viral molecular pathogenesis at Columbia’s Department of Pediatrics, led the study with Farber and said that because children can clear the virus more effectively than adults, they may not have you don’t need a strong antibody immune response to get rid of it.
They also wrote that since children’s cells express less protein that the virus needs to infect human cells, this could explain why the virus is less able to infect children’s cells than adults.
Their results were published in the journal Nature’s immunology.
Children and T cells
Since the start of the pandemic, children have been found to be largely supportive of the virus, compared to the elderly and those with co-morbidities.
Farber explained that children have a lot of “naive T cells.”
T cells play a central role in orchestrating the immune response, as they find infected cells in the human body and destroy them, previously told Health24 Professor Thomas Scriba, deputy director of immunology and director of the laboratory at the University of Cape Town.
These cells, Farber added, are able to recognize all kinds of new pathogens. In comparison, older people are more dependent on their immunological memories: “We are not as capable of responding to a new pathogen as children,” she says.
Children produce fewer neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2
An article in Health24 explains that antibodies play their role by binding to specific parts of a virus and neutralizing the harmful effects of the virus (also called “neutralizing antibodies”).
The study showed that, compared to adults, children produced less neutralizing antibodies against the virus spike protein (which mediates viral entry into human cells) than all adults analyzed in the study, including including young adults in their twenties.
The team found that the sickest adults had the most neutralizing activity.
Farber explained that this finding likely reflects the length of time SARS-CoV-2 is present in the sickest patients.
“There is a link between the magnitude of your immune response and the extent of the infection: the more severe the infection, the more robust the immune response, because you need to have more immune cells and immune reactions to eliminate a higher dose of a pathogen, ”she says.
Children contagious for a shorter period: explained
Farber said the infection does not spread much or kill many of their cells in children, which may be explained by the fact that children produce very few antibodies against a viral protein that is not visible to the immune system only after the virus has infected cells. , with Porotto commenting:
“Because children clear the natural virus quickly, they do not have a generalized infection and they do not need a strong antibody response.”
“Current studies in other countries indicate that young school-aged children are not vectors for the novel coronavirus, so our data is consistent with these results,” Farber said.
However, the researchers said they did not measure the viral load in children. They also noted that it is still unclear exactly how children are able to clear the virus more easily than adults, and what the adult immune system is lacking.
Results Good news for children and potential Covid-19 vaccine
According to the authors, children should respond favorably to a Covid-19 vaccine, if it becomes available.
“Even though children do not produce neutralizing antibodies in response to natural infection with SARS-CoV-2, vaccines are designed to generate a protective immune response in the absence of infection,” said Farber.
“Children respond very well to vaccines, and I think they will develop good neutralizing antibody responses to a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and they will probably be better protected than adults.”
However, since very few studies of active vaccines recruit children, the researchers indicated that this data will be needed to understand how well vaccines work in children.
READ | Children’s immune systems respond to Covid-19 differently than adults, research finds
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Image: Getty / MoMo Productions
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