One of the most frequently asked and discussed questions about Covid-19 is related to immunity to the disease, however at present there is still a widely accepted research. But on the other hand, a recent study says that a good portion of people can be immune to the disease and all thanks to a common cold.
Considering how other coronaviruses have acted, the data so far say that immunity to Covid-19 could not be longer than 12 months. Antibodies happen to disappear after three months, but not immunity. T cells (the type of lymphocytes that coordinate the immune system and are able to detect infected cells and destroy them) have memory abilities. Recent studies suggest that humans may be immune to coronavirus precisely from T cells created for the cold.
Researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School at the National University of Singapore published (via BGR) a study in Nature and say that T cells created by the body's contact with previous coronaviruses may be enough for an immune response against Covid-19 .
The team tested people cured by Covid-19 for T cells and found that patients cured of the SARS virus 17 years ago still had SARS-specific T cells that could provide immunity against the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 .
The Duka-NUS study is the third study to claim that coronaviruses responsible for the common cold can trigger a type of immunity to SARS-CoV-2. In mid-May, two similar studies by the La Jolla Institute for Immunology and the German University Hospital Charité highlighted the importance of T cells in immunity to Covid-19.
