New research has discovered that adults and children produce different numbers and types of antibodies after being infected with the coronavirus. The study comes from the researchers of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and explores Covid-19 in children compared to adults.
They discovered that the varying differences between the antibodies indicate how the infection will play out and how the immune system responses in children are much different and distinct in their bodies which helps them clear the illness out of their system much faster.
Donna Farber is an immunologist at Columbia University. She says their study gives a very detailed evaluation of the lethal virus.
Matteo Porotto who led the novel study says the Covid-19 in children takes a different course for the illness in their bodies. The period of illness in the bodies of children is much shorter than adults and is thought also to not be as disseminated as the disease is seen in adult bodies.
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He adds saying that children actually happen to clean out the virus from their systems much more successful than the adults and therefore he believes they may not even require a very dominating antibody immune response to successfully beat the coronavirus.
The pandemic has so far made it clear that on a major basis the children farewell with the virus than older people who often struggle a lot and sometimes even pass away struggling from the disease.
Farber reminds us that though this is a very recent and unknown illness, one which neither scientists nor people have ever experienced or heard of, it is one against which children are specially adapted even when encountering such a pathogen for the first time in their lives. He explains that a child’s immune system is designed to save them from such threats to their livelihood they also have a lot of T cells that are new.
This means that their bodies can pick up on new pathogens and recognize them but this does not happen in older bodies, why? well because when we grow older our bodies rely on immune system memories instead and thus older bodies are rendered helpless in the presence of new unknown pathogens that children can respond well to.
The study included about forty-seven children in total, 16 of whom were treated at Columbia University Irving Medical Center for MIS-C. Among these children were 31 others who seemed to be around the same age as each other and had confirmed to be infected when they visited a medical center seeking treatment for other conditions.
The two sets of groups had similar antibody profiles, according to the study which found differing results in adults.
The researchers explained that compared to adults the Covid-19 in children’s bodies in the study make fewer antibodies in defense of the virus’s spike protein, this is apparently what the coronavirus uses to infect the cells in human bodies.
The activities of antibodies in the children were found to have the least activity of neutralizing. In adults, however, especially younger adults in their 20s, neutralizing antibodies were found.
It’s interesting to note that the adults who were the illest had the most fill of this activity.
The researchers explain this happens in the most severe cases because the body needs a more robust system against the virus than children do who happen to clear it out right away.
To conclude, there is still a lot about this virus that is not known about yet. The researchers believe they still need to understand more of the virus to know for sure what leads to the severity of the disease and what does not.
