New York: In a big breakthrough, researchers have found that people who have had a bout of seasonal or common cold in the past may get protection from Covid-19.
The study, published in the journal mBio, also suggests that immunity to Covid-19 is likely to last a long time — maybe even a lifetime.
The study showed that the Covid-19-causing virus, SARS-CoV-2, induces memory B cells, long-lived immune cells that detect pathogens, create antibodies to destroy them and remember them for the future.
The next time that pathogen tries to enter the body, those memory B cells can hop into action even faster to clear the infection before it starts.
Because memory B cells can survive for decades, they could protect Covid-19 survivors from subsequent infections for a long time, but further research will have to bear that out, the researchers said.
The study is also the first to report…