The coronavirus pandemic has brought information completely unknown to the scientific community, which tries to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus works, and the way in which the human body reacts to it.
And now there is a new case that caught his attention, by three underage brothers who presented antibodies, although apparently they were not infected.
These are the children of the couple formed by
Leila
and
Tony
, Australians who attended a wedding at the end of March, when the coronavirus outbreaks became more serious in the country.
Upon returning from the event, both began with symptoms such as cough, nasal congestion, fever, and headache.
After taking a test, the two came out positive for COVID-19 but, since they had lived with their three children of nine, seven and five years, since their return, and the children did not show any problem, they decided to stay with them at home at recuperate.
Faced with the infection of the parents, the doctors continued doing PCR tests on the little ones, to detect if they contracted the virus at some point.
But even after a few months, they remained negative.
The surprise of all was when the antibodies were analyzed in the whole family, and the doctors discovered that also the infants had them.
In fact, the minor had developed a high amount, similar to that of a person who contracts the virus and develops a strong infection.
Given this, a group of researchers decided to invite them to a study to analyze their DNA and the way in which their body responds, since it could give great advances in the fight against the virus.
Nigel Crawford
, one of the scientists who was part of the research, stressed that it is very important “to investigate the immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in all age groups to understand the susceptibility to the disease, the differences in severity and the vaccine candidates ".
For her part, Dr.
Melanie Neeland
added that the children did not really show any symptoms or signs of the infection.
“Despite the active response of immune cells in all children, the levels of cytokines, molecular messengers in the blood that can trigger an inflammatory reaction, remained low.
This was consistent with the absence of symptoms, "he explained.
The analysis was published in the
journal
'Nature', but the doctors still do not explain with certainty how the children managed to present the antibodies in becoming infected since, contrary to breastfeeding mothers, there is no direct channel through which they are could be passed from parent to child.
In addition, there is a previous investigation in which there is talk of a "cross immunity" or derived, which could arise after presenting other coronavirus infections, such as MERS or SARS.
"In this study it appears that there is a significant proportion of individuals who have this cross-
reactive
T-cell immunity, coming from other coronavirus infections, that may have some impact on how they cope with the new coronavirus," said Dr.
Amesh Adalja
, Researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.
But, in the case of the little ones, the antibodies are stronger, more specific, and apparently they have not had any infection by a pathogen of this type either.
See also:
What does it mean to have antibodies against COVID-19, is there immunity?
The important role of T cells in possible immunity against coronavirus
How long will immunity from the COVID-19 vaccine last?
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