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Covid-19

Lung-migrating helminths can enhance immunity to SARS-CoV-2

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 23, page 616 (2023)Cite this article

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There have been conflicting views on whether helminth infections modulate disease outcomes during SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this study, Oyesola et al. infected K18-hACE2 mice (which express human ACE2 and are therefore susceptible to SARS-CoV-2) with the lung-migrating helminth Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, waited for the mice to clear the infection, and then infected the mice intranasally with SARS-CoV-2. Mice previously infected with N. brasiliensis showed decreased mortality in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection (60% survived compared with 20% of controls). By contrast, previous infection of mice with an intestine-restricted helminth did not confer a survival benefit. Further experiments suggested that the protective effect was dependent on Arginase 1+ monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages that replace the resident alveolar macrophages during N. brasiliensis infection. These N. brasiliensis-induced macrophages enhanced the recruitment and activation of virus-specific CD8+ T cells during subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection, which limited disease severity. Therefore, previous exposure to lung-migrating helminths may promote immunity to SARS-CoV-2 by remodelling pulmonary macrophage populations. Interestingly, lower levels of COVID-19 mortality and morbidity have been reported in regions where helminth infections are prevalent.

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References

Original article

  • Oyesola, O. et al. Exposure to lung-migrating helminth protects against murine SARS-CoV-2 infection through macrophage-dependent T cell activation. Science Immunol. 8, eadf8161 (2023)

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  1. Nature Reviews Immunology http://www.nature.com/nri/

    Yvonne Bordon

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  1. Yvonne Bordon
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Correspondence to Yvonne Bordon.

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Bordon, Y. Lung-migrating helminths can enhance immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Nat Rev Immunol 23, 616 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00947-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00947-w

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