COVID, Here To Stay

"A lot of people think, 'I got COVID, I got over it and I'm fine', and it's a nothing-burger for them. But that's not everything."

"[For some people], it's still wreaking havoc in your body."

Ziyad Al Aly, clinical epidemiologist, School of Medicine, Washington University

"[COVID] immune damage [could be contributing to recent surges in RSV [respiratory synctial virus] and other respiratory infections]."

"[The study] shows that the terrible 2022 RSV epidemic was not as simple as a 'catch up' year."

"The 2022 surge was driven by 'more severe cases'. What happened between 2021 and 2022? Mass infections of children with Omicron."

Lisa Iannattone, assistant professor of dermatology, McGill University

New research out of Israel suggests most symptoms of long COVID clear up within a year, but some — like weakness and trouble breathing — are more likely to persist. CBCNews

 

Although the initial years-long panic over the pandemic has subsided, an estimated three-and-a-half million Canadians have experienced symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath and other associated symptoms that have lingered for three months or more following a confirmed or suspected COVID infection "that could not be explained by anything else", according to a newly published national study on the after-effects of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID.

From mild to debilitating long-term problems, people tended on average to miss 24 days of work or school for a cumulative total of some 14.5 million missed days. And the more infections circulating within society at any given time, the likelier people were to come away from their COVID-infection experience with long-lasting symptoms. "As of June 2023, about 100,000 Canadian adults have been unable to return to work or school because of their symptoms": Statistics Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada survey.

Dr. Manali Mukherjee, an immunologist with McMaster University, found himself coping with symptoms for a year and a half recovering from long COVID. What exactly defines the "post COVID" experience, how best to treat patients, what possible medications might work best, are questions experts are still struggling with. There are over 100 symptoms, just to complicate matters, ranging from abdominal pain, hair loss and concentration problems.

Some experts believe that rogue autoantibodies turn on the bodies' own tissues, attacking the "host", or overactive cytokines-- proteins that boost inflammation in the body's natural immune response might be the source of the problem. "Cytokines give us an idea that there is still inflammation going on", explained Dr. Mukherjee.

A recent study published in Nature Medicine found increased risks of cardiovascular issues, diabetes, lung problems, gut problems, blood clots as well as additional conditions remained up to two years following infection even after mild or moderate COVID infections. The study was based on the health records of U.S. military veterans, infected prior to vaccines and drugs such as Paxlovid were available.

COVID is known to cause damage to organs and the vascular system in some people.

Some in the medical community engaged in COVID research have once more amplified on social media that COVID "damages the immune system", so that people become more susceptible to other respiratory viruses or pathogens. Some leading  experts in virology and immunology feel this to be speculative rhetoric exaggerating the risks associated with COVID. COVID-19, like other respiratory viruses can lead to 'temporary perturbation' in the immune system.

According to Matthew Miller, COVID can cause immunological changes that can be measured with sophisticated techniques, but whether these are meaningful changes requires careful study.

"It's not that I don't believe it is possible that COVID might, in some cases, cause immune deficiency-- it's simply that there is not currently sufficient evidence to conclude that it happens."

"Is getting infected good for  you? Of course not. Should we take steps to prevent infection? Absolutely!"

"But rhetoric that overstates the current state of evidence related to COVID risks is no more valid than rhetoric that diminishes the seriousness of COVID-19." 

Matthew Miller, director, Michael G. Degroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University

Doctors and epidemiologists are reporting a surge of new COVID infections. CBCNews

 

 

Genomic Impacts on the Human Immune System

"When the Black Death swept through northern Africa and Eurasia in the mid-fourteenth century, it killed up to half of the human populations there, reshaped history — and potentially changed the course of human evolution."

"A study published on 19 October in Nature¹ suggests that lingering scars from the bubonic plague, which was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, can be found in genes involved in the modern human immune system. Four DNA variants in particular seem to have become more common after the Black Death, and might have contributed to survival."

Genes that might have aided survival during the Black Death are now linked to autoimmune disorders.  Nature

“Diseases and epidemics like the Black Death leave impacts on our genomes, like archeology projects to detect."

"This is a first look at how pandemics can modify our genomes but go undetected in modern populations. These genes are under balancing selection — what provided tremendous protection during hundreds of years of plague epidemics has turned out to be autoimmune related now."

"A hyperactive immune system may have been great in the past but in the environment today it might not be as helpful."

Hendrik Poinar, Professor of Anthropology, McMaster University 

"Our genome today is a reflection of our whole evolutionary history [as we adapt to different germs]", senior author Luis Barreiro explained of the conclusions reached by a team of scientists for a study published in the journal Nature. As example, some pathogens such as those behind the bubonic plague had a large impact on current-day immune systems. Current populations were left a biological legacy -- which helped our ancestors survive the Black Death, the end result being that it may make us more susceptible to some diseases encountered today.

 

In the 14th century, the Black Death represented the single most deadly event in recorded history as it spread relentlessly throughout Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa, in the process eradicating up to 30 to 50 percent of the population. Dr. Barreiro and colleagues at the University of Chicago, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and the Pasteur Institute in Paris examined ancient DNA samples from bones of over 200 people from London and Denmark who had perished over a period of roughly100 years before, during and following the Black Death sweeping through the region.

 

Four genes which -- depending on the variant identified -- either protected against -- or increased susceptibility to -- the bacteria that caused bubonic plague; most often transmitted by the bite of an infected flea. What had assisted people in Medieval times was found to have led to problems generations following -- raising the frequency of mutations detrimental in modern times. 

 

Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus represent certain autoimmune disorders, for example, found to have an association with some of the same genetic variants identified as protective against the plague. In diseases of this kind the immune system that defends the body against disease and infection attacks the body's own healthy tissues. "A hyperactive immune system may have been great in the past but in the environment today it might not be as helpful", explained Hendrik Poinar, anthropology professor at McMaster, another of the study's senior authors.

 

Although past research sought to examine how the Black Death affected the human genome, Dr. Barreiro is convinced that theirs represents the first demonstration that the Black Death held an important place in the evolution of the human immune system. The narrow time window associated with the event is a unique aspect of the study. Leading to a question: Will the COVID-19 pandemic leave a large impact on human evolution? Since the death rate is so much lower and the majority of people who died in the current pandemic already had borne children, Dr. Barreiro does not think that to be the case.

 

It is the fact that an anticipated appearance of more deadly pandemics in the future that may continue to shape humanity at the most basic level of the immune system function, that may go on to shape the future.

"The team focused on genes related to immunity and found four DNA variants that seemed to have been selected for during the Black Death in samples from both the United Kingdom and Denmark. One variant affected the expression of a gene called ERAP2. People with the variant produce a full-length version of an RNA molecule that encodes the ERAP2 protein; those who lack it make a shorter version of the RNA."

Nature

SARS-CoV-2 Ongoing Revelations

A woman and a baby in Wuhan, China, where the first COVID-19 cases were reported.Credit: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty

"Long story short, COVID-19 leads to lasting and possibly permanent changes in immune cells in some, but not all people."

"Their white blood cells were unrecognizable compared to healthy donors."

"We've learned that this virus, and we can't tell you how, leads to the death of a whole bunch of T cells, and then seems to, at least in some people, lead to damage to the white blood cells they make after that infection."

"Once a T cell commits to responding to one thing, it can't respond to anything else. As we age, more and more of them become committed to responding to infections, or all the other things we might be exposed to, and fewer and fewer are available to respond to new threats."

"Many, hopefully most people, will be fine. Once you've got T cells committed to the vaccine or the virus, in theory these should be expanded and activated once you are boosted."

Dawn Bowdish, Canada research chair in aging and immunity, McMaster University

It could be that SARS-CoV-2 is remaining in the body and causing immune alterations."

"[Some groups reported people with even mild infections had symptoms of T cell] exhaustion [and people with multiple infections of COVID had] poorer performing immune memory to SARS-CoV-2."

"It was almost as if their T cells were giving up the ghost."

Anthony Leonardi, T cell researcher, Boston

"Much remains to be learned."

"However, I agree with the school of thought that it is preferable to avoid this infection, because of the risks of long COVID and evidence of long-lasting effects."

Immunologist Tania Watts, University of Toronto

A health-care worker tends to a person with COVID-19 in London, where the viral variant B.1.1.7 caused cases to surge.Credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AFP/Getty

A new alert has been raised among the community of scientists absorbed in the study of SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID and its short- and long-term effects on the human body and mind. Researchers are facing evidence that repeated infections with the COVID-19 virus may be responsible for premature aging of the human immune system. Ontario public health officials noted recently in an update that evidence is emerging of SARS-CoV-2 causing "immune dysregulation".

This is characterized by an immune system that fails to behave normally. Where it has been observed that white blood cell counts may be degraded, in that immune cells fail to respond in the manner they normally would, and inflammation becomes more troublesome than it should be. New research suggests that T cells that normally aid in the production of antibodies to kill infected cells, have been modified by COVID.

"A potential increase in acquired impaired immunity in the Ontario population could have significant impact on the incidence and associated burden of infectious diseases -- and other conditions in the longer term."

Public Health Ontario brief

A cell infected with SARS-CoV-2 particles (pink; artificiallly coloured).Credit: Science Photo Library

Of concern is that people may be found to be less capable of fending off pathogens and infections like influenza as a result of COVID infections, or that an immune system that has become degraded could lead to an increase in autoimmune diseases such as diabetes. Immune imbalance, which has been recognized as a key feature of long COVID, an issue that intrigued Dr. Bowdish, leading her to examine a blood sample from a hospitalized patient with SARS-CoV-2.

As a result of research by her team, results of a small study has been published indicating abnormal white blood cell counts and high inflammation present even in asymptomatic and mild 'recoverees'. A problem that is seen to be more pronounced in people with severe COVID cases. In some instances it was found that blood cells never fully recover "and seem to generate autoimmune reactions" causing the body's immune system to attack its own tissues.

 

A person with COVID-19 lies in an intensive-care unit in Santiago.Credit: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty

Lower numbers of "naive" T and B cells (cells producing antibodies) were found in people who had COVID, in a recent study. Naive cells represent those not yet responding to an infection and therefore not yet dedicated to a single-purpose function. Fewer naive T cells is recognized as a sign of "immune aging", where a level of resilience remains to produce more naive cells "but not an indefinite capacity", points out Dr. Bowdish.

According to one theory, SARS-CoV-2 hyperactivates T cells leading in severe cases to overzealous cells causing chronic elevated inflammation responsible for harm done to the body, according to Anthony Leonardi. A Boston group reported that people with long COVID had persistent bits of spike protein in their blood remaining up to a year post diagnosis, seen as a potential reservoir of infection.

It becomes easier to be reinfected when people with multiple infections of COVID ended up with "poorer performing immune memory to SARS-CoV-2", explained Dr. Leonardi.Vaccines and boosters are seen still to be effective against the risk of severe infections. Most people were found in a review to eradicate the virus, and current vaccines "elicit robust T cell responses that likely contribute to remarkable protection against hospitalization or death", said Dr. Bowdish.

Still, with some people losing naive cells, this may leave them less likely to respond to other viruses or infection "so that's the major concern", elaborated Dr.Bowdish. Persistent inflammation is a troubling sign, one that leads people to be more likely to develop cardiovascular problems or strokes. 

Children play in Israel, where roughly 60% of people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.Credit: Guy Prives/Getty

Appreciating Winter Cold

Old Finnish winter log sauna cabin

"You are invited to take off all your clothes and go to a little room heated to almost 100 degrees Celsius, where you will sit, naked, with others for a while and sweat. Then you will go outside and jump (still naked) through a small hole in the ice on a lake, the sea or whatever and refresh yourselves in the freezing water – or roll in the snow instead."

"In short, 'What about a sauna?'"

"The answer should be simple. Be courageous and say 'yes' – because if you don’t you will miss a deliciously relaxing experience which will provide a vital insight into the culture and mentality of your Finnish hosts."

This is Finland : Bare Facts About the Sauna in Finland

 

"Obese people have less total brown fat and this is one contribution to obesity."

"[Exactly how large a factor it is overall is] the million-dollar question."

Michael Symonds, Nottingham University 

"People saying that they  re aroused and alert and they feel alive, well that's really the release of the stress hormones as a result of what is a pretty significant physiological stress."

Mike Tipton, cold exposure physiological effects, Portsmouth University

"I was swimming back to shore [winter cold-immersion swim] with my wife, when everything went completely blank."

"I was walking and talking but had lost my memory. It gradually came back over the next few hours."

"I was told then it was extremely unlikely to happen again and I'm pleased to say it hasn't."

Michael Mosley TV journalist, cold enthusiast

Ice ice baby: cold-water swimming at the Men’s Pond in Hampstead, north London. Photograph: Michael Walter/Troika

 

The past few decades has seen research into brown fat in the knowledge that its potential for preventing obesity is fairly vital to explore. There are studies suggesting a link exists between the centrally-heated comfort of our homes and the universal rise in obesity within populations. Slim people tend to have more brown fat than others, but it is known that its amount varies from one individual to another. Unlike white fat which accumulates under skin, brown fat does not store calories, instead it burns calories.

Packed with mitochondria -- tiny cellular power plants burning glucose to produce heat -- brown fat is quite different than what we usually envision fat to be; a thick layer of unwanted weight. It is known that regular exposure to cold temperatures increases the activity of brown fat, consuming energy for several hours after exposure to the cold. A phenomenon that leads to the theory that getting cold may be a solution to burning calories with minimal effort. 

Adapting to the cold is now seen by many to be a simple, natural method of increasing health. Improved mental health along with a healthier immune system, with the additional benefit that it may also lead to weight control. At  home, turning down the thermostat is one way to expose everyday living to winter cold ... within reason. 

 

In the Netherlands, a study found people who spent time in a 15 - 16C room over a ten-day period increased brown fat activity, burning more calories, with volunteers spending six hours daily in the cold. "You do not need to be exposed all day. Most likely a minimum of an hour is required", clarified Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt of Maastricht University, leader of the research.

Another study led by Susanna Soberg of the University of Copenhagen, found regular cold-water swimmers' brown fat burns more calories when cold than people who hadn't been accustomed to cold exposure; training brown fat makes it work more efficiently. Walking, running or cycling in the  old have all been demonstrated to burn more calories than they would do in warmer weather. 

One can gradually acclimate to being in a colder room, but that isn't the case with dousing oneself with cold water in the winter; a shock to the system ensues wth the body cooling more rapidly in water than it would in air. Rapid loss of heat from the skin sets off the fight-or-flight response, while stress hormones rise sharply and quickly. A shock linked to benefits such as a healthier immune system.

 

The water felt cool, but the effect on the pain was that it completely numbed my legs’: Sara Barnes at the Blue Lagoon, Wasdale. Photograph: Emily Cornthwaite

 

The initial rush of adrenalin followed swiftly by an increase in anti-inflammatory chemicals in the blood, tamping down the immune response, according to another study. When injected with a small portion of a bacteria to stimulate an immune response afterward, cold-exposed people experienced fewer symptoms and lower fevers than those who had not been in cold water.

 

With over three thousand volunteers, a separate study showed that people who ended a warm shower with a 30 - 90-second burst of cold water daily for a month were 30 percent less likely to take time off work for illness than were those who just had warm showers. An estimated 30 seconds -- one-half minute -- has the same benefits as a one-minute exposure.

It must be pointed out that there is stress and danger in the cold-shock response. The sharp deep intake of breath ("gasp reflex") that strikes when skin feels cold water, is not controllable, and should it happen with the mouth under water a risk of drowning ensues. Hyperventilation that follows the initial gasp is reason enough why jumping off into cold water without being accustomed to it, is not recommended. "You're much better off going in slowly and habituating", advises cold-water enthusiast Mike Tipton.

Additionally, the shock of sudden immersion raises risk of a heart attack, even in people without underlying health issues as well. A rare, but total loss of memory can also result. Safely done, however, there are benefits to be had in teaching the body to deal more efficiently with other stresses; mental, physical, or both.

 

 

COVID Posing as a Cancer Cure? No...Really!

"The message for anyone with cancer is that deliberately exposing yourself to COVID-19 in the hope it will heal you is much more likely to lead to your untimely demise than to a cure. I don’t think we fully understand the mechanisms, but some immune response is most likely to be the reason."

"Tumours often evade the immune system and, in this case, COVID infection seems to have kick-started the immune system very effectively. Given how common cancer is, and how common COVID-19 is, it may not be surprising that we see more reports of spontaneous remission associated with a coronavirus."

"Proving cause and effect will be very difficult unless we see quite a few such remissions."

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England

Doctors concluded that the Covid-19 had destroyed his cancer by firing up his immune system (Image: Commonwealth Media Services)

"At this stage it’s too early to draw any conclusions from these cases - it’s quite possibly a coincidence."

"Anyone undergoing cancer treatment should continue to follow the advice of their doctors, as well as protecting themselves from catching Covid-19."

"And we encourage all who can to take up the vaccine."

Martin Ledwick, Cancer Research UK’s head cancer information nurse

"We think COVID-19 triggered an anti-tumour immune response", Sarah Challoner, a physician at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Britain stated. This, of a 61-year-old man in the U.K. whose peculiar experience has health professionals uncertain whether to credit his simultaneous bout with the SARS-CoV-2 virus at a time he was newly diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, revealed during a medical checkup that occurred the summer of 2020. Almost directly following his cancer diagnosis, the man was infected with COVID-19.

He was rushed to hospital severely ill with COVID. What followed was close to two weeks of intensive care. He was put on oxygen because of the damage to his lungs. Then he was discharged after fully recovering. A few weeks afterward he returned to hospital for a CT scan and it was discovered that the tumours that had been seen to be present on his torso had almost all disappeared. Spontaneous emission does occur, but rarely. One of the team of doctors who treated the man stated her belief that the virus had affected his immune system dramatically, leading to the malignant cells' destruction.

 

For privacy protection the man has not been identified, but the case was published in the British Journal of Haematology.

Dr.Challoner is convinced that the COVID infection in all likelihood promoted wide-scale production of T-cells performing the function of destroying both the presence of the virus and the cancer. Her opinion is not universally shared, however, and others urge caution in making the assumption that the two are that entwined; that COVID spurred the immune system to action in such a way as to rescue the man from his newly-diagnosed cancerous condition.

Hodgkin lymphoma  is caused when the body's white blood cells increase rapidly, spreading to the lymph nodes. Symptoms may vary, but the most obvious symptoms of this type of cancer include swollen nodes in the neck, underarm, groin or chest. Chemotherapy is the preferred method of treatment, to which the disease responds well, according to Dr.Paul Hunter who also stated: "I don't think we fully understand the mechanisms, but some immune response is most likely to be the reason."

 

CT scanner in hospital (Image: Getty)

Steadily Emerging Biotechnology Options in Cancer Survival

"For me, as a clinician, when my patients don't get access to innovative care, I hate that."

"Because I do bone marrow transplants, I am unfortunately in the business of telling patients that they're out of  options and that they will succumb to their disease."

"Before CAR-T cells, I had that conversation many times. I still have that conversation, but it is less common now because at least I can say, 'We have the potential for CAR-T cells'."

"We realized we have the people, we have the infrastructure, we just have to put the parts together to build a CAR-T network."

"It's important to remember that CAR-T therapy is still very new and there can be serious side-effects. We need more research to learn about this therapy and make it work for even more people."

Dr.Natasha Kekre, associate professor, University of Ottawa

We depend on our immune systems to recognize biological invaders, and to begin the action for which nature designed them, to protect against those invaders, to mount natural internal defences for the purpose of countering the invaders and destroying them before they have the opportunity to destroy our bodies. In the case of cancer, the immune system fails to recognize cancer cells as invaders because those cells that have turned cancerous were part of us to begin with; defective cells that eventually turned cancerous.

CAR-T, at the vanguard of the immunotherapy revolution represents an approach to fighting cancer by arming the body's immune system to recognize cancerous cells and to mount a defence against them. Cancerous cells have the capacity to evolve; through genetic alterations they develop the capacity to escape T cell detection. T cells are re-engineered through CAR-T therapy to find and attack cancer. The therapy is designed to make use of an inactive virus to insert genes into an individual's T-cells creating artificial receptors (chimeric antigen receptors; CARs), on the surface of tumour cells upon which chemical attacks are launched to destroy them.

Pioneering research in the field of CAR-T therapy was sited at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where researchers working there become involved in a landmark study in 2014. The study saw publication in the New England Journal of Medicine in October of that year, reporting that 27 of 30 young patients with advanced acute lymphoblastic leukemia had gone into remission, responding well to the CAR-T therapy they were exposed to. Since that time research in CAR-T has accelerated to the point it now is one of the most studied and most promising of cancer research and development avenues.

In Canada two commercial CAR-T therapies have been approved for use; Kymrish and Yescarta, both meant to treat aggressive blood cancers that failed to respond to other treatments. A third CAR-T therapy, Tecartus was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year for treatment of resistant mantle cell lymphoma. What all these treatments have in common aside from success as a last-effort treatment of huge potential is their costliness -- hundreds of thousands for one-time treatments.

Next step in new clinical trials, a focus on the technology's capability to engineer an immune system attack on solid tumours featuring advanced breast, prostate, pancreatic, lung and brain cancer. Hope is on the horizon, with over 150 clinical trials involving CAR-T therapy, recruiting in the United States. Few Canadians have been able to take advantage of such innovative clinical trials of the complicated-to-administer, expensive therapies.

 

 

A situation that motivated The Ottawa Hospital scientist Dr.Natasha Kekre who saw no reason why Canada could not gather scientists in the field of medical biological therapeutic protocols across Canada to work together on this leading edge of molecular biology and medical technology, to create home-grown opportunities for Canadian patients. Where a patient's T cells -- white blood cells guarding against foreign invaders -- are genetically engineered to recognize and attack cancer cells.

There are now three Ottawa scientists dedicating their work to establishing a made-in-Canada CAR-T research network and a fledgling network is taking form with Dr. Kekre the lead investigator in the first clinical trial with Canadian-produced CAR-T cells. Back in 2016 at a immunotherapy conference Dr.Kekre invited other scientists from Ottawa, Victoria and Vancouver to a discussion to determine whether Canadian scientists could launch their own manufacture of CAR-T cells, conduct research and begin clinical trials.

The researchers all had established laboratories funded to address other projects. "We drafted out what we thought could happen -- how we could mobilize using the resources we had in Canada to make CAR-T cells here", explained Dr.John Bell, immunotherapy researcher at The Ottawa Hospital. Three laboratories collaborated to a) manufacture the required virus to deliver genetic material to a patient's T cells; b) produce the genetic material to be inserted into T cells; c) manufacture the modified CAR-T cells. "It was like a puzzle where all the pieces fit", stated Dr.Harold Atkins, stem cell transplant specialist, researcher at The Ottawa Hospital.

 

Jan 17, 2019

by Dafna Izenberg Andreas Laupacis

Boosting Immunity to Battle COVID-19 in High-Risk People

"We think harnessing innate immunity could be one of our best weapons for fighting COVID-19 -- and could easily be adapted to tackle future pandemics."
"An effective vaccine against COVID-19 could take another year or more to develop, test and implement."
"In the meantime, there is an urgent need to protect people with cancer from severe COVID-19 infection, and we think this immune stimulator, IMM-101, may be able to do this."
"It's like sending your innate immune system to the gym for a while. So when it comes back to attack the next pathogen, it's much stronger and better."
"I imagine that if this trial was positive, this would be something you could have in your back pocket when the next pandemic came. You'd be able to say, 'We have something that works and can protect high-risk people'."
Dr.Rebecca Auer, director of cancer research, The Ottawa Hospital

Surgeon-scientist Dr. Rebecca Auer is leading a world-first clinical trial that she hopes will protect cancer patients from COVID-19 and other respiratory infections by boosting their immune systems during treatment.The Ottawa Hospital

A new Canada-wide clinical trial is set to proceed whose purpose is to find a way to protect cancer patients -- whose immune system has been compromised by the presence of cancer, and through protocols such as chemotherapy -- from COVID-19 through fortifying their immune systems. Should the trial prove successful, it would represent a methodology that could assist not only cancer patients, but others with weakened immune systems where age or illness has played a role in making them vulnerable to COVID infection.

An immune-boosting bio-therapeutic called IMM-101 comprised of heat-destroyed bacteirum Mycobacterium obuense, which can be found in soil and water, is involved in the clinical trial. IMM-101, originally developed as an immunotherapy cancer treatment, has the demonstrated capability to activate the body's first line of defence, inclusive of NK (natural killer) cells responsible for guarding against viral and bacterial infections; safely used in other clinical trials with cancer patients.

The point of the trial is to determine whether boosting cancer patients' immune systems with IMM-101 will succeed in protecting them from contracting COVID-19, including other respiratory illnesses such as flu, whose presence can complicate and delay cancer treatment. Chemotherapy indiscriminately targets the fast-dividing cells characterized by cancer, or immune cells. Over 90,000 people in Ontario last year received radiation treatments or chemotherapy, their care complicated by COVID-19.

The clinical trial will enroll 1,500 patients at nine cancer centres country-wide, where study patients will be randomly assigned to either a group receiving regular care, or the one that IMM-101 has been added to. The IMM-101 group will receive three doses of IMM-101 over a 45-day period, following which they will be observed for COVID-19 or other respiratory-type illnesses.

In the past, immune boosters have been used successfully for years in veterinary medicine, in the prevention of respiratory virus transmission in cattle, horses and other animals. In Europe, clinical trials are now testing the BCG vaccine -- a tuberculosis vaccine containing a live, weakened strain of Mycobacterium bovis, to prime the immune system against COVID 19.  BCG is responsible for training the immune system to fight off respiratory infections.

A similar process has been used for years in patients with bladder cancer, with huge success,

Dr. Rebecca Auer, surgical oncologist Photo courtesy The Ottawa Hospital. 

The mystery of why it is that some people become severely ill with COVID-19 even as others exhibit only mild symptoms, is believed by researchers to relate to an individual's innate immune system response. Innate immune cells recognize and attack a broad spectrum of infectious agents.

Live vaccines such as BCG cannot be administered to cancer patients, leading Dr.Auer and her research colleagues to search for an alternative, and that was IMM-101.

Though not a live vaccine, IMM-101 elicits a response when the innate immune system recognizes it as a foreign invader to which it reacts to protect the body.

Go Ahead, Pick Your Nose....

"I tell people, when they drop food on the floor, please pick it up and eat it."
"Get rid of the antibacterial soap. Immunize! If a new vaccine comes out, run and get it. I immunized the living hell out of my children. And it's OK if they eat dirt."
"You should not only pick your nose, you should eat it."
"Our immune system needs a job. We evolved over millions of years to have our immune systems under constant assault. Now they don't have anything to do."
Dr. Meg Lemon, dermatologist, specialty allergies and autoimmune disorders, Denver

"Hay fever is said to be an aristocratic disease, and there can be no doubt that, if it is not almost wholly confined to the upper classes of society, it is rarely, if ever, met with but amongst the educated."
British Journal of Homeopathy, Volume 29, 1872

"Allergic diseases were prevented by infection in early childhood, transmitted by unhygienic contact with older siblings, or acquired prenatally from a mother infected by contact with her older children."
"Over the past century, declining family size, improvements in household amenities, and higher standards of personal cleanliness have reduced the opportunity for cross infection in young families."
"This may have resulted in more widespread clinical expression of atopic disease, emerging in wealthier people, as seems to have occurred for hay fever."
Paper: "Hay Fever, Hygiene, and Household Size, British Medical Journal, 1980

Too many? Mark Blinch/Files/Reuters

Hay Fever? A catch-all term for all manner of allergies caused by seasonal exposure to pollen along with other airborne irritants. An aristocratic condition? In the 1980 paper published in BMJ in 1980, the author studied the prevalence of hay fever among 17,414 children whose birth month and year was March of 1958. "Most striking", he observed, was a detected association between the number of a child's siblings and the chance the child would acquire hay fever allergy.

He concluded that the more siblings, the less the likelihood of an allergy. Those children unlikeliest to become allergic were the children with older siblings. Exposure, exposure, exposure. This paper and its conclusion appeared to herald the hygiene hypothesis since evolved and expanded, providing deep insight into a condition the modern world imposes on people. We are now, more than at any time in our relationship with the world around us, exposed to less 'good' bacterial germs that help immunize us against the 'bad' ones.

Jack Gilbert, co-author of the book "Dirt Is Good," says kids should be encouraged to get dirty, play with animals and eat colorful vegetables.      Elizabethsalleebauer/Getty Images/RooM RF

We do all we can to shield ourselves from exposure to unsanitary conditions, unclean water, dire weather conditions, turning what we felt once to be an environment dangerous to good health outcomes in our search for survival techniques. We identified and then avoided foods that could be dangerous. Before refrigeration, long before any kind of safe food storage, pork was identified in ancient cultures as harbouring toxic contaminants from E.coli.

We learned to clear our hands of the presence of contaminants by washing them before eating, we learned to cook our food thoroughly to have it last longer before spoiling and to avoid being threatened by raw-based germs. "So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not", advised the Biblical chapter of Exodus. We wash everything now that comes in contact with our mouths, and we wash our surroundings and purify our water.

Our homes are cleaner than they ever were; we observe the injunction that 'cleanliness is next to godliness'. And our immune system began to find itself unemployed. We have smaller families, our milk is pasteurized, food processed and sterilized, to avoid microbes we imagine are all harmful. The immune system is more readily aggravated, developing allergies, chronic attacks of the immune system and inflammation; counter-productive, irritating and potentially dangerous.

More prescriptions for antibiotics might mean more allergies. Gary Cameron/Reuters

According to a paper citing research from the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, skin allergies "doubled or tripled in industrialized countries during the past three decades, affecting 15 to 30 percent of children, and two to ten percent of adults [while asthma] is becoming an 'epidemic' phenomenon". Another report by the World Allergy Organization states that by 2011, one in four children living in Europe had acquired an allergy, a figure on the rise.

The conclusion has been realized that antibiotics have been vastly over-prescribed, leading to a situation where the immune system faced with a deadly infection can no longer rely on the efficacy of antibiotics. "We have to get away from the idea of annihilating these things in our local environment. It just plays upon a certain fear", stated Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a scientist who led a mission at the World Health Organization to develop a global policy limiting the use of antibiotics.

We have done ourselves no favours in minimizing our interaction with nature, with germs, and with what can be 'friendly' bacteria by holding ourselves aloft and separate from contact with anything that might conceivably transfer germs to us. Those 'friendly' bacteria and parasites that once taught our immune system how to react are in short supply, leaving our immune system at sea and over-reacting, allowing exposure to dust mites or pollen to produce allergies at an ever-rising rate of infection.

uBiome