There are two theories and then my own, which is under review: 1/🧵
2/ The first theory is from de Candia. They claimed that 1) young t cells act more precisely on cov2's epitopes thanks to a broad repertoire 2) memory t cells in older people contribute to inflammation pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33277181/
The second theory is Petter Brodin's theory regarding energy allocation.
A fact then a bit of speculation as my contribution:
fact: Naive T cells are a correlate of protection independent of age (but it correlates)
Speculation: As sars cov 2 infections greatly deplete Naive T cells, there may be a point where decompensation occurs (less protection)
Of course this is a dynamic relationship where other elements of the immune system can contribute to protection like antibodies and primed memory
But there is a natural sloughing and aging of the immune system
More to come on this
In cases where there is antibody escape the T cell dynamics are weighed more heavily, which is what we see often with these sera-evading variants and with titer waning
I have been delivering this message of the differentiating and dying T cells in the news since October 2020, have a read agenciasinc.es/Reportajes/Los…