'We think this newly identified protein could be part of our body's natural response to combating the infection creating a barrier that physically separates the virus from our lung cells most sensitive to Covid-19.' 'When we stain the lungs of healthy tissue, we don't see much of LRRC15, but then in COVID-19 lungs, we see much more of the protein,' Dr Loo said. Postdoctoral researcher and study co-author Dr Lipin Loo said the LRRC15 protein was far more present in the lungs of people with COVID-19 than those without, suggesting it was already helping to protect people from COVID-19. 'For me, as an immunologist, the fact that there's this natural immune receptor that we didn't know about, that's lining our lungs and blocks and controls virus, that's crazy interesting,' Prof Neely said. The other teams were at Oxford University in the UK and Yale and Brown universities in the US. Professor Greg Neely, who led the study, said his team was one of the three internationally to independently to uncover this specific protein's interaction with COVID-19. One will target the nose as a preventative treatment, and another will be aimed at the lungs for serious cases. They say the strategies could work across multiple variants. The authors said they are now developing two strategies against Covid using LRRC15. That study found the protein was lower in the blood of patients with severe covid compared to patients that had mild Covid. This theory is supported by a separate study from London that examined blood samples for LRRC15. Researchers believe that patients who died from Covid-19 did not produce enough of the protein, or produced it too late to make a difference. The astonishing find may finally explain why some people suffer serious illness with the virus, while others never get sick or appear symptomless. The protein, which is naturally occurring, works by attaching itself to the virus like velcro, preventing it binding with more vulnerable cells and reducing the chance of infection. LRRC15 is not present in humans until Covid-19 enters the body but it appears after infection.
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