Researchers at Yale University (USA) have found that exposure to rhinovirus, the most common cause of colds, can protect against COVID-19.

According to scientists, the reproduction of the coronavirus is stopped thanks to interferon, which is produced by the human immune system in case of a cold.

This was reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The triggering of the body's defense mechanisms in the event of a cold can prevent or even cure an infection at an early stage of infection, according to the lead author of the study, assistant professor of the laboratory of medicine and immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, Ellen Foxman.

However, Foxman notes that it is not necessary to have a cold to prevent COVID-19, because interferons are available in the form of drugs. Foxman is confident that it is possible to talk about the benefits of interferons in the early stages of infection, since their use during a severe course of the disease can have the opposite effect and contribute to a life-threatening overactive immune response.

To test their assumptions, Foxman and her colleagues infected laboratory-grown samples of human respiratory tract tissue with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and found that during the first three days, the number of coronavirus particles in them doubled approximately every six hours.

At the same time, in the samples exposed to rhinovirus, the multiplication of the COVID-19 virus was completely stopped.

As the researchers note, if the antiviral interferon defense was blocked, SARS-CoV-2 could replicate again.

The results of the experiment also showed that interferons can slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 even without rhinovirus, but only if the infectious dose was low, Ellen Foxman said.

"There are hidden interactions between viruses that we do not fully understand, and these discoveries are the piece of the puzzle that we are now looking at," concluded Foxman.

  • There are hidden interactions between viruses, American researchers believe

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The data of scientists from Yale is confirmed by earlier work of researchers, said in an interview with RT Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergology at Sechenov University, Alexander Karaulov.

According to him, the use of drugs based on interferon for the prevention and treatment of viral diseases was known to Soviet scientists.

The experimental work of 1986 by American scientists showed that interferons have a protective effect in the case of a common coronavirus infection, Karaulov noted.

He also recalled that at present in Russia, the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with the help of genetically engineered interferons is completely spelled out in the official recommendations of the Ministry of Health.

“Let me remind you that medicines containing interferon alfa-2b have long existed on our market.

This is the development of the Gamaleya center, now famous all over the world thanks to the Sputnik V vaccine.

At the same time, despite all the advantages of interferon, it is reliably known that the best means of antiviral prophylaxis was and remains mass vaccination of the population, "summed up Karaulov.