A series of experiments with volunteers helped create it.
A test system for determining cellular immunity was created by scientists from the National Medical Research Center of Hematology. To do this, they examined more than a hundred fragments of various proteins of the coronavirus.
According to the “MK” in the Center, the test was created on the basis of an experimental study conducted on a large sample of volunteers. To create a test, specialists examined 118 fragments of various SARS-CoV-2 proteins. The system works as follows. Living T-lymphocytes are isolated from the patient’s blood, which are incubated (kept) with fragments of the coronavirus under sterile conditions for 16-18 hours. If cells from the test sample have already had contact with the antigen, they are activated and begin to produce interferon gamma. After special manipulations, spots are formed on the substrate from those T-lymphocytes that the virus “recognized”. Their number is calculated using special equipment and compared with the threshold value.
Let us recall that, in contrast to the known to all antibodies to the disease, cellular immunity is another branch of specific immunity. It is more solid, deeper, and, as a rule, remains in a person after an illness (or vaccination) for a long time. There is proven evidence that for some diseases, for example, polio, yellow fever and a number of other infections, basic T-cell immunity can last for decades, or even a lifetime. As for the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, how our T-cell immunity behaves with it is still unknown, but scientists have high hopes for this particular segment of the immune system.
So far, scientists from the National Medical Research Center of Hematology have learned to determine only the presence or absence of a T-cell response depending on a certain threshold value. Such a test is recommended for people without antibodies to coronavirus in the present tense in order to make sure whether they have had an encounter with SARS-CoV-2 in the past or not. Since the summer of 2021, more than 300 people have tested the Corona-T-test, and 60-65% have a T-cell response to coronavirus proteins. Scientists note that mutations in the new Omicron strain cannot significantly affect the protection from T-lymphocytes, as well as the diagnostic characteristics of the test system.
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