By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay)
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Researchers studying whether COVID-19 affects how the human immune system responds to subsequent viral threats found changes in men that differed from those in women.
Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) analyzed immune responses of healthy individuals who had received the flu vaccine. They then compared responses in those that had never had COVID with those that had mild cases and recovered.
They were surprised to seek out that men who had had mild COVID cases showed a stronger response to flu vaccines in comparison with either women with mild COVID infection or people of either sex who were never infected.
Which means that the baseline immune status in previously infected men was altered in ways in which modified the response to a distinct virus, said the authors, who included John Tsang, now a professor of immunobiology and biomedical engineering at Yale University in Latest Haven, Conn.
“This was a complete surprise,” Tsang said in a university news release. “Women often mount a stronger overall immune response to pathogens and vaccines, but are also more more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases.”
Researchers said these recent findings could also be linked to an commentary made early within the pandemic — that men were way more more likely to die from a runaway immune response than women after contracting SARS-CoV-2.
Researchers said even mild cases of COVID may trigger stronger inflammatory responses in males than in females. This will lead to more pronounced changes to the male immune system, even long after recovery, they said.
Researchers found several differences between COVID-recovered males and healthy controls and COVID-recovered females, each before and after receiving flu shots.
Previously infected males produced more antibodies to influenza in addition to increased levels of interferons, for instance. These are produced by cells in response to infections or vaccines.
Typically, healthy females have stronger interferon responses than males do.
With greater than 600 million people worldwide who’ve had COVID, understanding its lingering effects on the immune system is crucial, the authors said.
The emergence of “long COVID” symptoms in some people continues to be a serious health concern, they noted.
“Our findings point to the chance that any infection or immune challenge may change the immune status to determine recent set points,” said lead creator Dr. Rachel Sparks, from NIAID. “The immune status of a person is probably going shaped by a large number of prior exposures and perturbations.”
Tsang said the findings may help scientists create higher vaccines against diverse threats.
The findings were published Jan. 4 within the journal Nature.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on long COVID or post-COVID conditions.
SOURCE: Yale University, news release, Jan. 4, 2023
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