Discussed in this episode:
- New research published in Nature examined if people who got infected without showing symptoms had something in common genetically. They did: a mutation on the HLA-B (that’s short for Human Leukocyte Antigen) gene. In the laboratory, T-cell samples collected from those people *before* infection reacted strongly to SARS-COV2, suggesting the mutation helps the immune system respond to other, less-serious coronaviruses in a way that is also effective against COVID-19.
Reference: Augusto, D.G., Murdolo, L.D., Chatzileontiadou, D.S.M. et al. A common allele of HLA is associated with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06331-x
Podcast music credit: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.