Tag Archives: Immune system

Nucleic acid vaccines use mRNA to give cells instructions on how to produce a desired protein. Libre de Droit/iStock via Getty Images Deborah Fuller, University of Washington The two most successful coronavirus vaccines developed in the U.S. – the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – are both mRNA vaccines. The idea of using genetic material to produce an immune response has …

Christoph Burgstedt/Shutterstock Albert J.R. Heck, Utrecht University Every person appears to have a unique immune system. My colleagues and I discovered this immune diversity after charting antibodies in the blood from healthy and sick people. The discovery could help explain why, for example, COVID vaccines appear to be less effective for some people. At the same time, it points to …

Andre Coelho/EPA/AAP Sunit K. Singh, Banaras Hindu University Over a year into the pandemic, questions around immune responses after COVID continue to confound. One question many people are asking is whether the immunity you get from contracting COVID and recovering is enough to protect you in the future. The answer is no, it’s not. Here’s why. Remind me, how does …

Our body clock has evolved over millions of years to help us survive. kanyanat wongsa/ Shutterstock Annie Curtis, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences When microorganisms – such as bacteria or viruses – infect us, our immune system jumps into action. It’s highly trained to sense and eliminate infections and clear up any damage caused by them. It’s typically …

Rido/Shutterstock Jonathan R Goodman, University of Cambridge A major debate during the pandemic, and in infectious disease research more broadly, is why infected people die. No virus “wants” to kill anyone, as an epidemiologist once said to me. Like any other form of life, a virus’s goal is only to survive and reproduce. A growing body of evidence instead suggests …

Dmitry Naumov/Shutterstock Jake M Robinson, University of Sheffield; Martin Breed, Flinders University et Ross Cameron, University of Sheffield On your next visit to the park, try and count all the different species you can see. Away from the closely mown grass, you might spot wildflowers attended by pollinating insects, like bees, wasps and hoverflies. Overhead there are the gnarled branches …

Our research could be important for developing more effective vaccines in the future. Arturs Budkevics/ Shutterstock Louisa James, Queen Mary University of London and Hamish King, Queen Mary University of London We understand much of how the immune system works but, as recent efforts to combat COVID-19 have shown, its sheer complexity means many mysteries still remain. For example, how …

Exercising indoors is beneficial for our immune system. SUPREEYA-ANON/ Shutterstock James Turner, University of Bath and John P Campbell, University of Bath People around the world are staying at home as part of social distancing measures to limit the transmission of the novel coronavirus. In some countries people are being encouraged to exercise once a day. However, there’s long been …

I am a physician, and I just got my first shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. William Petri, CC BY-SA William Petri, University of Virginia This week I was vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, which brought to mind some frequently asked questions about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. I am a professor of infectious diseases at the …

Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock Bryan Paul Morgan, Cardiff University Although the vaccine cavalry is finally coming over the hill, the need for better drugs to treat those with COVID-19 remains. Many drugs are being tested in patients at different stages of the disease, but with a few notable exceptions, results so far have been disappointing. In patients with severe COVID-19, runaway inflammation …