Antibodies Protect Against Respiratory Infections

Lung infections cause only a small subset of people to become very sick. However, the prediction of the risk in an individual or its mechanism remains unclear, as observed in the context of COVID-19. Lungs generally consist of their own specialized immune system, that is different from the rest of the body. It is now found that after recovering from a respiratory infection, new cells get deposited in lung tissue, persist there, and then become antibody-secreting cells very quickly if the lungs later get re-infected by something similar, as per research at the Boston University School Of Medicine.

The study team analyzed a combination of infections in experimental models and cells collected from human lungs.

"We found lungs that had recovered from infections had new cells that were not there before infection, capable of quickly producing antibodies when stimulated. We showed that antibodies in the lungs helped fight microbes and removing the cells making these antibodies compromised lung defense against respiratory pathogens," says the corresponding author Joseph Mizgerd, ScD, professor of medicine, microbiology, and biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine.

The team thereby speculates that these differences in lung-specific antibodies and antibody-secreting cells might be one of the important factors in determining who will become very ill or instead experience mild or even no symptoms when infected by a respiratory pathogen.

Also, the immunity that is lung-localized differs from more conventional types of immunity as it prevents severe disease instead of preventing infection altogether and is effective against a wider range of microbes instead of against only one single virus or bacteria.

"With a better understanding of the components of lung immunity that prevent severe infections, we will be able to identify who is prone to severe disease when infected. Leveraging this knowledge may provide opportunities to develop novel types of vaccines that prevent severe disease caused by a broader spectrum of microbes, such as for all coronaviruses or all influenza viruses."

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Source-Medindia