📖 Children’s immune systems do not develop ‘adaptive memory’ to protect against second-time SARS-CoV-2 infection

Emily Henderson ~ Medical Life Sciences / Tri Phan et al ~ Clinical Immunology • 26 January 2023

❦ ‘Children have largely avoided severe COVID-19 symptoms because they have a strong initial ‘innate’ immune reaction that quickly defeats the virus.


But unlike those of adults, children’s immune systems don’t remember the virus and don’t adapt, so when they’re next exposed to SARS-CoV-2, their body still treats it as a new threat.


“Because children haven’t been exposed to many viruses, their immune system is still ‘naive’. And because they don't develop memory T cells, they are at risk of getting sick when they become reinfected.


With each new infectious episode as they get older, there is a risk of their T cells becoming ‘exhausted’ and ineffective, like the T cells in older people.


The price that children pay for being so good at getting rid of the virus in the first place is that they don’t have the opportunity to develop ‘adaptive’ memory to protect them the second time they are exposed to the virus,” says Professor Tri Phan.’


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📖 (26 Jan 2023 ~ Medical Life Sciences) Children's immune systems do not develop 'adaptive' memory to protect against second-time SARS-CoV-2 infection ➤


📖 (January 2023 ~ Clinical Immunology) Tracking the clonal dynamics of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in children and adults with mild/asymptomatic COVID-19 ➤


© 2023 Emily Henderson / Medical Life Sciences.