This is the new hypothesis that comes from a study coordinated by the Yale School of Medicine and published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine
To protect the Children most severely affected by Covid-19 could be respiratory infections due to other microbes, which constantly keep the immune system of the little ones on the defensive. This is the new hypothesis that comes from a study coordinated by the Yale School of Medicine and published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The reasons why Covid-19, since the early stages of the pandemic, seemed to hit in a less aggressive way the children are not yet clear. One hypothesis is that, for reasons related to age, children have a more effective innate immunity, the first line of defense of the organism. In fact, several studies have shown an increased presence in the nasal cavities of cells and proteins typical of this form of immunity. “Previous work suggested that the increase in nasal innate immunity in children was due to intrinsic biological mechanisms inherent to their age,” says Ellen F. Foxman, one of the authors of the study, in a note.
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“However, we thought that it could also be due to the high burden of respiratory viruses and bacterial infections in children.” The team re-analyzed about 600 swabs taken from children during the pandemic and which were used only to assess Covid positivity in view of a surgical operation. Now the researchers have looked in those swabs about twenty other viruses and measured the levels of innate immune response. They thus discovered that the majority of children, especially the youngestalthough completely asymptomatic, had a current infection and concomitant high levels of immune response. “We identified respiratory viruses and bacteria as key drivers of increased innate nasal immunity in children,” adds Foxman. “Our findings call for further study of how seasonal respiratory viruses and nasal bacteria impact the severity of COVID-19 and pediatric immune responses in general.”
