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It is the private laboratory Abc labs in Biomedicum, Karolinska Institutet in Solna, which in consultation with the Swedish Public Health Agency and 13 of the country’s regions is initiating the project.
On Monday, they begin investigating what so-called T-cell immunity to covid-19 looks like in the general public.
– In discussions with the regions and the Swedish Public Health Agency, we have come to this decision to start measuring T cells in the population, says Ola Winqvist, professor of immunology and formerly affiliated with the Karolinska Institutet in Solna.
The plan is for samples to be taken. in regions across the country and sent to the laboratory in Solna that does the actual analysis that takes three days.
At first, it is expected to pass about 100 tests a day.
– But in the long run we hope to scale and have the capacity to handle up to perhaps a thousand samples every day, says Ola Winqvist and takes us on a journey through the laboratory that has had time since May last year. to perform some 800,000 PCR and antibody tests.
In one of the rooms we have a demonstration by lab assistant Robert Wallin showing how it can happen when a test tube of blood comes in.
Centrifuge to separate white blood cells. They are then mixed with different solutions so that the T cells can finally be produced and mixed with specific proteins from the surface of the coronavirus.
If they stick together, small complex black dots are formed that can be seen with the naked eye.
Laboratory assistant Robert Wallin shows how the device measures the presence of T cells.
Photo: Beatrice Lundborg
The idea is to test people who have suffered a covid-19 infection to see how their immunity has developed.
– There is a particular interest in investigating what immunity looks like in the elderly, and perhaps immunocompromised people or people with multiple diseases, after a recent infection, says Ola Winqvist.
As many are vaccinated, it will also be interesting to investigate how different groups and individuals react to the vaccine.
They also want to know if there is any difference in immune response between different types of vaccines, says Ola Winqvist.
– We know that everyone reacts differently, and there are many different types of vaccines that can be interesting to compare, he says.
Many black dots mean that the T cells have attached to the coronavirus proteins.
Photo: Beatrice Lundborg
To measure T cell immunity in the general population it is a good complement to antibody tests that are performed, according to Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, professor of infectious disease medicine at the Karolinska Institutet in Solna.
– It can contribute to obtain more information about immunity in the population, he says.
The easiest way to tell if someone has immunity to COVID-19 is to still take an antibody test. Studies show, at least nine out of ten develop an antibody response after a moderate or severe COVID-19 infection.
But although many retain the antibodies for a long time, it has also been observed that many lose them over time.
– In most situations in which antibodies are measured after a viral infection, there has been a previous process that involves the activation of T cells, which in turn stimulates the so-called B cells to produce antibodies, says Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren.
Ola Winqvist believes that T cells in all likelihood it plays an important role in what is called cross immunity.
– In the tests we do, you will be able to see if a person has T cells that are specific for covid-19 or for other coronaviruses with which they could have been infected ten years ago. Today it is believed that they may not get as sick from covid-19.
Read more:
The Swedish Public Health Agency learned about this last year.
