Natural defences against a common cold could offer some protection against COVID-19, too, research suggests. The small-scale study, published in Nature Communications, involved 52 individuals who lived with someone who had just caught COVID-19.
Those who had developed a “memory bank” of specific immune cells after a cold—to help prevent future attacks—appeared less likely to get COVID-19.
Experts say no one should rely on this defence alone, and vaccines remain key. But they believe their findings could provide useful insight into how a body’s defence system fights the virus. COVID-19 is caused by a type of coronavirus, and some colds are caused by other coronaviruses, so scientists have wondered whether immunity against one might help with the other.
But the experts caution that it would be a “grave mistake” to think that anyone who had recently had a cold was automatically protected against COVID-19, as not all are caused by coronaviruses.
The Imperial College London team wanted to understand better why some people catch COVID-19 after being exposed to the virus and others do not.