If you have been sick with COVID-19, you may have some protection against certain versions of the common cold.
A new study suggests previous COVID-19 infections reduce the risk of catching colds caused by milder cousins of the coronavirus, which could provide a key to broader COVID-19 vaccinations.
“We think there will be a future coronavirus outbreak,” said Dr. Manish Sagar, senior author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “Vaccines could potentially be improved if we could replicate some of the immune responses provided by natural infection.”
The study analyzed COVID-19 PCR tests from more than 4,900 people who sought medical care between November 2020 and October 2021. After controlling for factors such as age, sex and preexisting conditions, Sagar said he and his colleagues found people who were previously infected with COVID-19. 19 had about a 50% lower chance of having a symptomatic common cold caused by coronavirus compared to people who were, at the time, fully vaccinated and had not yet contracted COVID-19.
Several viruses cause colds; Coronaviruses are thought to be responsible for around 1 in 5 colds.
Researchers have linked protection against colds caused by the coronavirus to virus-killing cellular responses to two specific viral proteins. These proteins are not used in most vaccines currently, but researchers propose adding them in the future.
“Our studies suggest that these may be new strategies for better vaccines that not only address the current coronaviruses, but any potential future ones that may arise,” said Sagar of Boston Medical Center.
Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas who was not involved in the study, said the findings should not be seen as a knock against current vaccines, which target the “spike” protein that is on the surface of SARS. CoV. -2 viruses that cause COVID-19.
These vaccines, he said, “are still your best defense against serious COVID-19 infections, hospitalization and death.”
But he added: “If we can find targets that offer cross-protection between multiple viruses, we can add them to specific vaccines or start using them as targets for vaccines that would give us broader immunity from a single vaccination. And that would be really cool.”
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