Common cold helps protect against Covid-19, London study finds
The common cold can help protect people against Covid-19, a new study has found, due to the high levels of T cells found in sufferers.
The “important discovery” by Imperial College London researchers could help vaccine makers in developing new vaccines which grant longer immunity – even against future variants.
Though the London scientists urged that “no one should rely on this alone”, and that being vaccinated or receiving a booster jab is the “best way” to be protected against Covid-19.
“We found that high levels of pre-existing T cells, created by the body when infected with other human coronaviruses like the common cold, can protect against COVID-19 infection,” first author of the study, Dr Rhia Kundu said, as T cells – a type of white blood cell – help tackle infection.
Current vaccines do not prompt an immune response to the internal proteins of Covid-19, unlike T cells.
The study began in the early months of the pandemic in the UK, in September 2020.
Senior author of the study, and director of the NHR Respiratory Infections Health Protection Research Unit at Imperial, Professor Ajit Lalvani added: “Our study provides the clearest evidence to date that T cells induced by common cold coronaviruses play a protective role against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“These T cells provide protection by attacking proteins within the virus, rather than the spike protein on its surface.
“New vaccines that include these conserved, internal proteins would therefore induce broadly protective T cell responses that should protect against current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants.”