2023-10-18 01:31:12
National Institutes of Health, analysis of infants and children’s immune systems against COVID-19 virus
Entered 2023.10.18 10:30 Views 2 Entered 2023.10.18 10:30 Modified 2023.10.17 18:44 Views 2
We are entering a season of concern about the spread of COVID-19. The reason why infants and young children are less susceptible to COVID-19 has been revealed. [사진=게티이미지뱅크]Research results have revealed why young children are less susceptible to the COVID-19 virus than adults.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) research team surveyed and analyzed 81 infants and children aged 1 month to approximately 4 years old who were infected with the COVID-19 virus. The results showed that while adults’ antibodies to the COVID-19 virus rapidly increased for several weeks and then decreased, young children’s protective antibodies increased rapidly and remained at high levels for up to 300 days (during the observation period). The immune response of adults and young children is clearly different.
Additionally, the blood of adults infected with COVID-19 generally had high levels of certain proteins (inflammatory cytokines) associated with severe COVID-19 and death, while the blood of infants and young children did not. Cytokines are immune proteins contained in the blood. However, the infants’ noses showed high levels of inflammatory cytokines and powerful antiviral cytokines.
The research team investigated 81 full-term infants and children enrolled in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-supported cohort study at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital during the third trimester of pregnancy. The research team had mothers collect their babies’ nasal secretions with a cotton swab every week starting at two weeks old. The research team regularly collected blood from the babies starting at 6 weeks of age, and also when the children were infected with COVID-19 in the following weeks and months.
Using these samples, the research team analyzed the immune responses of children before, during, and after their first exposure to the COVID-19 virus. 54 of the participants were infected with the COVID-19 virus and showed mild COVID-19 symptoms. Twenty-seven participants who tested negative throughout the study period were used as a control group. About half of the children were 9 months old or younger at the time of infection.
The research team also included nasal swab samples from 19 mothers with COVID-19 (experimental group) and 19 healthy mothers (control group) and blood samples from 89 adults with COVID-19 (experimental group) and 13 healthy adults (control group). I ordered it. The research team investigated the differences in the immune response of babies and adults to viruses through a specific approach (systems immunology).
According to the research team, this suggests that cytokines can cause mild cases of COVID-19 by blocking COVID-19 virus infection directly at the site of virus penetration. The research team predicted that it would be possible to develop a vaccine adjuvant that mimics the immune response of young children by maintaining consistently high antibody levels without causing excessive inflammation in the blood.
The results of this study (Multi-omics analysis of mucosal and systemic immunity to SARS-CoV-2 after birth) were published in the international academic journal Cell and introduced by the American health and medical media ‘MedicalXpress’.
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