Antibodies fight off the new coronavirus, but what do T cells do?
ISLAMABAD, August 23 (online): Our immune systems are primed to fight off viruses. As evidence about how our bodies react to SARS-CoV-2 emerges, we look at how different immune cells work together to fend off the new coronavirus, and why T cells may play a greater role than scientists initially thought.
Many people will be familiar with the concept of antibodies that our bodies generate to fight off infection.
In the battle against the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, scientists have widely hailed the presence of neutralizing antibodies as the holy grail of immunity to future infections.
However, antibodies do not exist in isolation. In fact, several cells in our body have to work together before antibodies, particularly neutralizing antibodies, enter the stage.
One sub-set of T cells are crucial actors in the intricate interplay that leads to antibody production. Another type of T cell kills cells that viruses have infected.
T cells are a type of lymphocyte, or white blood cell. The bone marrow produces them in the form of progenitor cells, and they migrate to the thymus, hence the name T cells.
There are several types of T cells.
Helper T cells, which some people call CD4 T cells, or CD4 helper T cells because they carry a protein called cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) on their cell surface, surveil our bodies for pathogens.
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