Australian scientists at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity mapped how the body’s immune system responds to coronavirus. The study involved four spaced out sessions of blood sample testing. The blood came from an otherwise healthy 47-year-old woman who tested positive with COVID-19 and had mild-to-moderate symptoms. This first-time accomplishment is an essential step towards the possible creation of an effective vaccine. The research has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The woman traveled to Australia from Wuhan, Hubei province, 11 days before she began to display symptoms. When she started to feel symptoms – sore throat, dry cough, lethargy, shortness of breath, pleuritic chest pain, and fever – she went to Melbourne A & E for medical assistance. She was otherwise healthy, on no medications, and a non-smoker. They managed her condition only through intravenous fluid rehydration. No supplemental oxygenation was required, and they did not use steroids, antibiotics, or antiviral agents.
Over a few days, the team took blood samples and mapped the response of her immune system to the virus each time. This is the first reported study of a body’s broad immune responses to COVID-19.
Research fellow Dr. Oanh Nguyen, who was co-author of the study, said:
We looked at the whole breadth of the immune response in this patient using the knowledge we have built over many years of looking at immune responses in patients hospitalized with influenza. Three days after the patient was admitted, we saw large populations of several immune cells, which are often a tell-tale sign of recovery during seasonal influenza infection, so we predicted that the patient would recover in three days, which is what happened.
Dr. Nguyen worked together with a leading influenza immunology researcher at the University of Melbourne, Professor Katherine Kedzierska, to dissect the immune response leading to a recovery from COVID-19.
Prof Kedzierska said:
We showed that even though COVID-19 is caused by a new virus, in an otherwise healthy person, a robust immune response across different cell types was associated with clinical recovery, similar to what we see in influenza. This is an incredible step forward in understanding what drives the recovery of COVID-19. People can use our methods to understand the immune responses in larger COVID-19 cohorts, and also understand what’s lacking in those who have fatal outcomes.
Royal Melbourne Hospital Infectious Diseases Physician Dr. Irani Thevarajan, who was the leader of the study, said:
We hope to now expand our work nationally and internationally to understand why some people die from COVID-19, and build further knowledge to assist in the rapid response of COVID-19 and future emerging viruses.
Current estimates state that over 80% of COVID-19 cases are mild-to-moderate. However, understanding the immune response in these cases could help find answers to why others die from it.
