Coronapod: Why T cells have been overlooked

Nature Podcast

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News, Science, Technology

4.5 • 893 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Much of the coverage of COVID immunity often focuses on antibody response and for good reason - these small, y-shaped proteins can detect, and in some cases neutralise, viruses like SARS-CoV-2. But as variants like Omicron evolve to evade antibodies, the role of another part of the immune system, T cells, has been brought into sharper focus. These immune cells work in a different way to antibodies, attacking infected cells rather than the virus itself, which can make their response broader and more robust. Now, research is showing that, unlike antibodies, T cell potency is not impacted by the mutations in variants like Omicron. In this episode of Coronapod, we ask why T cells are so often overlooked, and what role they might be playing in our protection from the coronavirus.News:‘Killer’ immune cells still recognize Omicron variantSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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0:00.0	Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you slide by on track to your destination, not a care in the world as you simply lean back, and before you know it, you're there.
0:16.8	London to Birmingham from just £16 each way.
0:20.5	Avanti West Coast.
0:22.2	Feel good travel.
0:23.8	Exclusions and limitations apply.
0:25.6	Full terms and conditions can be founded at avantiwestcoastcoast.com.
0:28.0	UK forward slash plan.
0:31.0	The future is unpredictable at times, that the Open University are the experts in distance
0:37.3	learning, allowing you to fit
0:39.2	study around your life. What's more, you'll have support from dedicated tutors every step of
0:45.1	the way. Now, suddenly your possibilities are open. Search the Open University to find out more.
0:55.3	The Open University, the future is open.
1:02.8	Welcome to Corona Pod.
1:06.2	In this show, we're going to bring you nature's take on the latest COVID-19 developments.
1:12.1	And we'll be speaking to experts around the world about research during the pandemic.
1:18.4	We're entering a new era now. We have new COVID strategies. There's some new unknowns, and we've got a vaccine.
1:28.7	Hello and welcome to CoronaPod.
1:30.7	I'm Noah Baker and joining me this week is CoronaPod favorite Heidi Ledford.
1:33.9	Heidi, how are you?
1:34.9	Hi, I'm fine. Thanks.
1:36.5	So this is your first Corona Pod of the year, our second overall.
1:39.4	And we're going to talk about something which has always been somewhat of a footnote in other
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