Virus-fighting immune cells fatigue quickly, providing vital COVID-19 clue
Immune cells crucial in fighting off diseases such as coronavirus wear out faster than previously thought, new research has revealed. And the discovery could be important in the COVID-19 fight.
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Immune cells that protect the body from severe viruses such as COVID-19, lose their function quicker than previously thought.
New research from the Doherty Institute, who are leading the coronavirus fight in Melbourne, has found infection-killing T-cells could become exhausted within just a few days.
This is important as it could allow doctors to give patients lifesaving medication sooner, rather than later.
And while studies are yet to be done on coronavirus patients, researchers are hopeful their work could help them better understand the deadly disease.
T-cells are the body’s fighter cells responsible for fending off infection.
When the body is hit with a severe viral infection or cancer, these protective cells eventually go into a state of “immune exhaustion” trying to fight it.
But until now, that process was thought to occur slowly.
Professor Axel Kallies, from the Institute and University of Melbourne, said preclinical
research has now revealed this could happen in as little as a few days.
“T cells are constantly exposed to a threat by the virus or cancer and that causes an impairment,” Prof Kallies told the Herald Sun.
“Initially we though this happened over time but what we found was that there are very early mechanisms in place that the virus uses to inhibit or impair the immune response.
“We also found that very early on you can alter the immune response by tweaking the molecules that are important.
“This means we can really change the outcome of an immune response by treating it very early.”
Severe infections, such as HIV or COVID-19, seriously alter the immune system’s response, whereas a mild flu or infection — which the body encounters almost daily — can be fought off.
To better understand why, researchers replicated viruses in mouse models to look at exactly how the T-cells respond.
“A severe infection really alters the immune response early on and that has an impact later,” Prof Kallies said.
“This further allows viruses or infections to happen and essentially you want to block this from happening.”
Prof Kallies said by knowing how virus’ affects the body, doctors or physicians would be better placed to predict or triage at-risk patients and prescribe medication before it is too late.
He said this could also shine a light on why some people become seriously unwell, while others have only a mild infection.
“At the moment it’s thought that you let the immune response run its cause and if you discover it’s at a point of exhaustion you can treat it,” he said.
“What we argue is that you can very early find signs of exhaustion (and treat it earlier on).”
The landmark study, published on Tuesday in the prestigious Nature Immunology journal, is a major discovery in the fight against potentially life-threatening virus’.
Prof Kallies is now hoping to look at the effects of COVID-19 on T-cells to see if it could be treated earlier.
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