Understanding coronavirus and innate immune
The coronavirus pandemic has turned the world’s
attention to the immune system, the body’s defence force against
disease-causing bacteria, viruses and other organisms that we touch, ingest and
inhale every day.
SARS-CoV-2 is a highly infectious
agent that constitutes one of the greatest dangers to public health of the past
century .Morbidity and mortality data make it clear that age, smoking status
and multiple conditions greatly increase the frequency of serious illness and
death.
There is an abundance of data from model systems and humans that age and
conditions of metabolic stress including:
- obesity
- type 2 diabetes
- smoking
- heart failure
- nerve damage
-central brain injury.
Viruses
aren’t technically alive: While they contain genetic instructions to make more
of themselves, they lack the molecular tools to execute the steps, and must
hijack living cells to complete the replication process for them
.
After these pathogens infect cells, their
genomes often duplicate sloppily, leading to frequent mutations that persist in
the new copies. Most of these changes are inconsequential, or evolutionary dead
ends. Occasionally, however, mutations will alter a viral strain so
substantially that the immune system can no longer recognize it, sparking an
outbreak even in populations that have seen a previous version of the virus
before.
Viruses
in the influenza family are the poster children for these drastic
transformations, which is part of why scientists create a new flu vaccine every
year.
The coronavirus is like any
other virus not much more than a shell around genetic material and a few
proteins. To replicate, it needs a host in the form of a living cell. Once
infected, this cell does what the virus commands it to do: copy information,
assemble it, release it.
For many viruses and bacteria,
this initial activity of the immune system is already sufficient to fight an
intruder. It often happens very quickly and efficiently. We often notice only
small signs that the system is working: We have a cold, a fever.
Though the army of antibodies dwindles after a
disease has resolved, the immune system can whip up a new batch if it sees the
same pathogen again, often quashing the new infection before it has the
opportunity to cause severe symptoms. Vaccines safely simulate this process by
exposing the body to a harmless version or piece of a germ, teaching the immune
system to identify the invader without the need to endure a potentially
grueling disease.
The good news is that it is
very likely there is an immunity. This is suggested by the proximity to other
viruses, epidemiological data and animal experiments. Researchers infected four rhesus monkeys, a
species close to humans, with SARS-CoV-2. The monkeys showed symptoms of
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, developed neutralizing
antibodies and recovered after a few days. When the recovered animals were
reinfected with the virus, they no longer developed any symptoms: They were
immune.
Researchers are already
collecting plasma from people who have successfully survived an infection with
SARS-CoV-2 and are using it to treat a limited number of patients suffering
from COVID-19. The underlying principle: passive
immunization. The studies carried out to date have
shown positive results, but they have usually been carried out on only a few
people.
Some governments have suggested that
the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,
could serve as the basis for an “immunity passport” or “risk-free certificate”
that would enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they
are protected against re-infection. There is currently no evidence that people
who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a
second infection.
Don't worry, A lot of people are going to
be asymptomatic, or have mild symptoms. And for those people what’s probably
happening is that they’re basically controlling the virus before it gets into
the lower respiratory tract.
The antibodies directed against the cold viruses will not be
able to do anything against this virus.Most healthy individuals have what’s
called an innate immune response, which is where you don’t necessarily need to
have previously seen this.
We all have pretty strong defenses ,our cells have a lot of you
know, just regular defenses that they can have all viruses. And in younger,
healthy people, those defenses oftentimes are good enough to stop the virus
before it gets going. Or at least delay it long enough before we can develop
our own antibodies against this virus.
How to help your immune system:
A healthy lifestyle, not smoking,
drinking little or no alcohol, sleeping well, eating a balanced diet, taking
regular moderate exercise and reducing stress helps our immune systems to be in
the best shape possible to tackle pathogens.