news-date">08.03.2021
According to a recent Australian study, children are protected from severe courses of COVID-19 because their innate immune system attacks the virus quickly.
A study by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) published in Nature Communications found that a child’s immune system quickly targets the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
Dr. MCRI’s Melanie Neeland said the reasons children have milder disease rates compared to adults and the immune mechanisms underlying that protection were unknown until this study.
“Children are less likely to be infected with the virus and up to a third are asymptomatic, in contrast to other respiratory viruses, with which children can often become infected and become more seriously ill,” said Neeland.
“Understanding the underlying age-related differences in the severity of disease courses in COVID-19 offers important insights and opportunities for prevention and treatment, both for COVID-19 and for possible future pandemics.”
The study included an analysis of blood samples from 48 children and 70 adults in 28 households in Melbourne who were infected or exposed to the new coronavirus. The immune responses were monitored during the acute phase of infection and up to two months afterwards.
Francesca Orsini and Alessandro Bartesaghi, along with their two daughters Beatrice and Camilla, participated in the study after they all tested positive for COVID-19.
Both daughters, aged six and two, had only mild discomfort with a runny nose, but Francesca and Alessandro suffered from extreme fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, and loss of appetite and taste. It took Francesca and Alessandro at least a fortnight to fully recover.
Dr. Neeland said the study showed that children with COVID-19 had a more robust innate non-specific immune response to the virus compared to adults. Immune cells migrate to infection sites and quickly clear the virus before it has a chance to really take hold. The adult body must first produce immune cells specifically directed against the new virus, which takes longer.
“This shows that the innate immune system, our first line of defense against germs, is critical to preventing severe COVID-19 in children. It is important that this immune response could not be observed in adults in the study.”
Swell: medicalXpress, Murdoch Children‘s Research Institute, Nature Communications
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