In a large cohort of people infected with SARS-CoV-2, a specific gene variant was more common in people who didn't show symptoms, compared to those who did.
Fever, shortness of breath and cough are all key COVID-19 symptoms we've been told to look out for throughout the pandemic. However, at least 1 in 5 people who test positive for the virus don't develop any symptoms, and the reason why has remained a mystery — until now.
The study authors propose that this variant guards against COVID-19 symptoms by tapping into the body's existing immunity against seasonal, cold-causing coronaviruses.Variations in the human leukocyte antigen complex, a set of genes that help the immune system to detect disease-causing microorganisms like bacteria and viruses, shape how people react to viral infections, such as HIV and hepatitis B.
To explain why the HLA-B*15:01 variant may be protective, the team studied T cells, a type of immune cell, that were collected before the pandemic from a separate group of donors carrying the variant. Despite having not yet been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, these T cells were reactive to a protein fragment from the virus, as well as to similar fragments from seasonal coronaviruses.
Francois Balloux, a professor of computational systems biology at University College London who was not involved in the study, praised the findings but urged caution regarding any incorrect interpretation of their meaning.
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