Why do some people get seriously ill from Covid-19, while others don’t have any symptoms? The answer may lie in the proteins that our immune system has previously been exposed to.
A study published in the open access journal “Frontiers in Immunology” concludes that food, vaccines, bacteria and viruses can prepare our immune system to attack SARS-CoV-2. All of these agents contain proteins similar to those of SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, exposure to these proteins can train our immune system to respond when it encounters the virus. The study paves the way for new immunotherapies or vaccines that lead to greater immunity against Covid-19
SARS-CoV-2 as a member of the coronavirus family shares many characteristics with other viruses, but the similarities do not end there. The researchers in this latest study hypothesize that similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and other proteins common can affect our susceptibility to the virus.
When our body is attacked by a pathogen, such as a virus or bacteria, it mounts an immune response that includes antibodies. These immune proteins attach to specific parts of the pathogen and contribute to its destruction. Once the initial infection has subsided, white blood cells called memory T and B cells will retain a memory of the pathogen, or at least certain parts of its structure. These cells will be ready to mount an immune response very quickly if they encounter the pathogen again.
could this “immune memory” regarding proteins that we have found in the past to be the basis of immune resistance and reduced susceptibility to Covid-19? To test this hypothesis, these researchers studied whether antibodies that target proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 virus could also bind to proteins from other agents, such as food or common bacteria.
Although these agents might provide some protection against SARS-CoV-2, they are not considered a substitute for current vaccines.
They tested the ability of these antibodies to bind to 180 different proteins from common foods, two different vaccines, and 15 bacterial and viral proteins.
The antibodies reacted most strongly with a common intestinal bacteria called E. faecalis and with a vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
Interestingly, they also reacted very strongly against proteins found in common foods, such as broccoli, las toasted almonds, pork meat, cashews, milk, soy and pineapple.
Unfortunately, you probably can’t eat it to get immunity against Covid-19. Immunity against one type of food, for example, is typically characterized by a food allergy. “Usually only people with leaky gut can make antibodies against food, so I wouldn’t recommend eating foods that make you leaky gut, because that would give you a whole host of new problems,” says the researcher. Aristo Vodjaniof the Cyrex Laboratories in Arizonalead author of the study.
In fact, the researchers caution that although these agents might provide some protection against SARS-CoV-2, they do not consider them a substitute for current vaccines. In addition, further testing is needed to confirm that these proteins do confer some protection and, if so, whether this occurs through a short-lived antibody response or a longer-term cellular memory response.
But the information may shed some light on our variable responses to Covid-19 infection. With further research, these results could lead to more effective treatments or to better vaccines against the virus. Another application could be to assess an individual’s susceptibility to the virus even before they have been infected.