Even with the omicron variant, the human immune system is not helpless. In addition to any antibodies that may be present, helper and killer cells also work in the human body.
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In the fight against the Corona variant Omikron, a crucial component of the human immune system is the focus of interest: the antibodies. These Y-shaped proteins were recently in focus again because the corona vaccinations with the existing vaccines apparently did not have as many antibodies against the strongly mutated Omicron variant produce like against previous Corona variants – at least not without a booster vaccination.
Antibodies attach themselves to the spike proteins on the surface of the coronavirus, preventing them from infecting human cells. But even if antibodies are important in fighting off Covid 19 disease, they are not our body’s only weapon against the virus. Rather, there is “a complex and coordinated response” to the threat, as Harvard University immunologist Roger Shapiro points out.
“Area bombing” at the beginning of the infection
Signal proteins put the body’s immune system on alert in the first minutes and hours after exposure to the virus. The first to appear are the so-called neutrophils, which make up 50 to 70 percent of our white blood cells. Although they fight against pathogens quickly, they also die quickly.
Then there are the hungry macrophages, which devour pathogens and excrete crucial components of the pathogen in order to train the natural killer cells in the body, called NK cells, to target the pathogen.
“It’s like bombing the whole area and hopefully the intruder will be harmed as best you can,” said University of Pennsylvania immunologist John Wherry. At the same time, the body “calls the headquarters to get your elite units going”.
Federation T cells: Professional killers of the body
If the first countermeasures of the immune system have not completely neutralized the virus, the so-called adaptive immune defense comes into play. A few days after infection, the B cells, a type of white blood cell, start working and making antibodies.
A corona vaccination also trains the B cells, especially in the lymph nodes in our armpits near the injection site of the injection syringe. There, in the event of an infection, a supply of B cells that are trained for the coronavirus is created. Harvard expert Shapiro compares the B cells with intelligence agents who have crucial information about the threat.
The most effective antibodies are so-called neutralizing antibodies. These attach themselves to the viruses like chewing gum on a key, which therefore no longer fits in the lock. Other antibodies help fight the viruses by directing them to immune cells or sounding the alarm and thus contributing to an intensified immune response.
The crucial partners of the B cells are T cells, the roughly in T helper cells and T-Killerzellen can be divided. the T-Killerzellen are “like murderers,” says Shapiro. “They go and attack the cells that have been infected.” This defense reaction does not take place without collateral damage.
the T helper cells are, however, “like generals,” added Shapiro. They ordered the troops, got the B cells to ramp up their antibody production, and carried out the T-Killerzellen to the affected cells.
Protection against severe gradients
Because of its numerous mutations, especially on the spike protein, the omicron variant may more easily escape the neutralizing antibodies that are already present in the body due to previous corona infections or a corona vaccination. This makes a corona infection with symptoms more likely. The good news, however, is that the T cells don’t be fooled so easily by mutated omicron viruses.
the T cells have a kind of “periscope” with which they can locate the essential components of the virus in infected cells, as Wherry explains. You are therefore not so easily fooled by changes in the pathogen.
T-Killerzellen scan the body for the virus, destroying infected cells, and triggering reactions that produce inflammatory proteins known as cytokines that help fight the pathogens. Depending on the speed of this reaction, a vaccinated person with a breakthrough vaccine will get mild, cold-like symptoms or moderate flu-like symptoms. In any case, the risk of a serious course of the disease is significantly reduced.
A booster vaccination stimulates the production of antibodies even more strongly and also appears to be the B and T cells to keep training. “Omikron is worrying, but the glass is still half full,” says Wherry. Even in its new version, the coronavirus will “not completely escape our counter-reactions”.
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