In a new study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology led by Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) and Seattle Children’s Research Institute in collaboration with the University of Washington School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin, researchers discovered why individuals with allergic asthma may have reduced susceptibility to COVID-19 and an important mechanism by which allergic inflammation diminishes SARS-CoV-2 infection, despite well-known susceptibilities to other respiratory viral infections.
Allergic diseases such as asthma are characterized by type-2 inflammation in the airways. BRI’s Naresh Doni Jayavelu, PhD, and the research team looked at mechanisms whereby type-2 inflammation in the airway surprisingly protects against SARS-CoV-2 in children. The study utilized bronchial airway cells from carefully characterized children with and without asthma obtained from the biorepository of Dr. Jason Debley, investigator at the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The Debley Lab team then used the cells to conduct SARS-CoV-2 infection experiments in their biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) facility using an organotypic ex vivo airway epithelial model system. Results demonstrated that viral replication was lower in airway epithelial cells from children with allergic asthma compared to their healthy counterparts, and that increasing the level of type-2 inflammation in the epithelium could dramatically impair viral replication.
