With the possible cross-reactivity of antibody tests to non-SARS-COV-2 antibodies, it got me thinking. Is there any evidence that exposure to non-SARS-COV-2 Coronavirus, and subsequent antibody production in your body, may help protect you from COVID-19 disease, or at least lessen the effects? Could this be part of the reason some react much more strongly than others?

With current antibody testing, I'm not even sure it would be possible to know this?

This is an interesting question. There seems to be a consensus the severe cases have an element of an overactive passive immune response. Something in these patients may have primed them to over-react or lose regulation of an otherwise effective and safe immune response.

While, it may be previous or recent exposure to other coronaviruses is helpful, I've wondered about the opposite. Someone here pointed to a study where the Chinese were looking at Lung injury due to classic SARS. To induce lung problems they first vaccinated macques for SARS to produce certain antibodies to the spike proteins of that coronavirus. They then infected the monkeys with classic SARS and produced acute respiratory distress symptoms for study.

So, what if recent exposure to another coronavirus leaves some percentage of people with antibodies that are prone to produce an over-reaction. Or for that matter, has anyone looked at vaccine histories of severe patients to see if there are common patterns of vaccines they had or didn't have?

Here was an interesting post from Texags summarizing that Chinese study.
11:46p, 4/8/20

Oh, and this stuff is way away from my expertise. So apply appropriate Holiday Inn Express caveats.

That is an interesting point. The immune response in the Cytokine Storm patients seems to be what gets them. I got antibody tested today. Now not sure if I am hoping for a positive or a negative!

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So, what if recent exposure to another coronavirus leaves some percentage of people with antibodies that are prone to produce an over-reaction. Or for that matter, has anyone looked at vaccine histories of severe patients to see if there are common patterns of vaccines they had or didn't have?

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So to play devil's advocate for disease enhancement theory, wouldn't you then expect an even distribution among the population for those that get severe disease? If a certain % of the time the viral epitope the antibodies produced recognizes a non-spike protein, wouldn't that be across the population and not be biased for age? Unless there is some age-related immune response I am missing (and we may not have an answer to).

I thought it was the presence of these other coronavirus antibodies that was keeping young people from being that affected by it. Because of the constant exposure to minor coronaviruses in schools and daycares, their body's immune system was basically just using its memory to recognize the threat quicker and therefore never give it a chance to manifest severe symptoms. I would be more interested in seeing a patient history report of the people younger than 25 that have passed or had severe reactions and how they have treated germs in the past.

I wonder if the adults that had the Cytokine Storms were those with robust immune systems but had very little exposure to the minor coronaviruses that typically circulate between kids and teens, i.e. they were either single, married for a while but had no kids, or all their kids had aged out of K-12 and now their antibody memory has faded.

I apologize if I am getting my articles and theories mixed up. I have absolutely no medical background so its difficult to keep everything straight that I am reading from all the more highly educated people on this forum.

I had asked my Critical Care Pulmonologist if it appeared if folks who had taking the flu and pneumonia vaccinations regularly through the years faired better then folks who had not had the vaccines....the CCP wished they could say yes but there was no evidence (to date) to say that was the case.

I was hoping to hear otherwise. For the last 25 years I have only missed two flu shots and both caught the dang flu. Never have missed a pneumonia vaccine. This year was the first time I had two flu vaccines with a six month period.

AggieFactor said:

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I thought it was the presence of these other coronavirus antibodies that was keeping young people from being that affected by it. Because of the constant exposure to minor coronaviruses in schools and daycares, their body's immune system was basically just using its memory to recognize the threat quicker and therefore never give it a chance to manifest severe symptoms. I would be more interested in seeing a patient history report of the people younger than 25 that have passed or had severe reactions and how they have treated germs in the past.

I wonder if the adults that had the Cytokine Storms were those with robust immune systems but had very little exposure to the minor coronaviruses that typically circulate between kids and teens, i.e. they were either single, married for a while but had no kids, or all their kids had aged out of K-12 and now their antibody memory has faded.

I apologize if I am getting my articles and theories mixed up. I have absolutely no medical background so its difficult to keep everything straight that I am reading from all the more highly educated people on this forum.

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This is certainly the other side of the adverse reaction hypothesis posted above and also another possibility.

I just don't think there is enough data to say one way or the other at this point. Its all speculation.

Thanks for the response.

Interpreting the data we have now we have to account for why there is such a pronounced age correlation. But we also have the question of why given a specific population with the same age, sex, and other comorbities we can see a wide range of impacts.

There is evidence that the immune system system behaves differently as we age. For instance, the efficacy of immunizations for influenza is different between children, over 65 yr olds, and the age groups in between.

It doesn't seem far fetched that as we age we are more prone to the immunological equivalent of "falling and breaking our hip." And we might end up in the side argument of whether the hip breaks before the fall or vice versa. :-)

As for a given subpopulation with the same age, sex, and comorbities, why the variance? Is it initial or repeated viral load on exposure? If it isn't just random, then it is a search for additional comorbities. I don't know enough about the field to do anything but naive speculation. Poking around in the literature suggests that there might be some counter-intuitive possibilities related to the interactions of the passive and active immune subsystems along with neutralizing vs non-neutralizing antibodies.

Another strained analogy might be to ask whether some get stuck "fighting the last war" against an opponent with different tactics? Yet, some continue to adapt and overcome.

I am curious whether anyone has seen any data on the disease history and vaccination history comparing severe and non-severe patients. The disease history is probably more difficult to acquire but the vaccination records might be available to those treating patients. There may not be anything there but I would expect someone has or will look, so I thought I would ask. FCBlitz has some info up above.