Aussies disclose a potential key finding that Covid-19 virus has a “trick” that Influenza virus does not...Covid-19 somehow keeps Killer T-cells from multiplying up to fight the infection.
What we found is those key immune cells weren't stimulated optimally for rapid proliferation and expansion to fight SAR-CoV-2," Ms Habel said.
"The magnitude of the CD8 killer T cells was only five times higher than those of the naïve immune cells. To give that perspective, it's 10 times lower than what we see during an influenza or glandular fever response."
In addition to magnitude, the team also looked at the activation profile of these immune cells and found that not only was activation poor, but in some cases these cells remained largely naïve, as if they hadn't been exposed to the virus at all.
