Dec 18, 2020

LMP researchers find clues about COVID-19 virus immunity

COVID-19, Research: Infectious diseases & immunopathology
Mario Ostrowski

Dr. Mario Ostrowski, professor in the Departments of Medicine, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, is part of a team which published research about the immune response in COVID-19 in the Journal of Immunology. The paper also includes work by LMP-appointed researchers Dr. Samira Mubareka and Dr. Allison McGeer.

The findings may help to explain why patients with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have more severe inflammation and lung tissue damage than patients suffering from regular seasonal influenza virus.

“We need to find out whether the immune cells in the blood of someone who has recovered from COVID-19 will react similarly or differently to a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Will they have a more inflammatory and less protective response? With plans to vaccinate Canadians in full swing, it is important to continue to evaluate how people who previously had COVID-19 will respond to vaccines,” says Ostrowski.

Read the paper Systematic Examination of Antigen-Specific Recall T Cell Responses to SARS-CoV-2 versus Influenza Virus Reveals a Distinct Inflammatory Profile, in the Journal of Immunology.

Read the full story, U of T Research Team Finds Clues about COVID-19 Virus Immunity on the Temerty Faculty of Medicine News.