Aussie scientists map immune response to COVID-19

Scientists in Australia have made the world's first detailed report of how the body's immune system responds to COVID-19, describing it as similar to that of seasonal influenza.

Scientists from the University of Melbourne's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity published their findings on Tuesday, which they hope will help with the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

To achieve their result, the team studied an otherwise healthy 40-year-old woman who was one of Australia's first cases of the virus, taking blood samples at four different times as her body fought the disease.

"We looked at the whole breadth of the immune response in this patient using the knowledge we have built over many years of looking at immune responses in patients hospitalised with influenza," one of the paper's authors, Dr Oanh Nguyen said.

"Three days after the patient was admitted, we saw large populations of several immune cells, which are often a tell-tale sign of recovery during seasonal influenza infection, so we predicted that the patient would recover in three days, which is what happened."

World-leading influenza immunology researcher and laboratory head at the Doherty Institute, Katherine Kedzierska said that because the team were able to dissect the immune response leading to successful recovery from COVID-19, they might also help to find an effective vaccine.

"This is an incredible step forward in understanding what drives recovery of the COVID-19. People can use our methods to understand the immune responses in larger COVID-19 cohorts, and also understand what's lacking in those who have fatal outcomes," Kedzierska said.

The team was hoping to expand their work nationally and internationally to understand why some people die from the COVID-19, and build further knowledge to assist in the rapid response of the disease.