A global association of researchers is taking the follow up on the thesis that was already backed by a few evidences. The thesis states that the early childhood vaccinations for measles, mumps, and rubella, commonly known by the name of MMR vaccine, can prove to be effective in protecting children against the COVID-19. These MMR vaccinations, especially for measles, have shown such evidence that it might help the children again the novel coronavirus.
The thesis is backed by the fact that when infants and the young children are majorly at a higher risk of infectious disease (when compared to the remaining age groups); COVID-19 stats have not matched with this idea with all the nations reporting much lower cases of the disease in children when compared to the adults and elderly populace.
The hypothesis of researchers is supported by the sequence similarity of amino acid residues between glycoproteins of SARS-CoV-2, measles and rubella viruses. Particularly, researchers found striking homology sequence similarity of 30 amino acid residues between the Spike (S) glycoprotein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with the Fusion glycoprotein of measles virus, and the envelope glycoprotein of the Rubella virus.
Generally, children are vaccinated against the live-attenuated vaccines of measles and rubella where the complete viral particle is hosted to the immune system of the child so as to prevent the future attacks. This increases the probability of shared immunity between the vaccine-preventable childhood diseases and COVID-19 even higher as children may be developing a broad enough immunity in response to the vaccines to cover novel diseases.
“The antibodies produced in children due to the MMR vaccine could recognize some epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins. These antibodies, particularly in the epithelial layer of respiratory airways, block binding and entering of the virus into the cells,” said Rimantas Kodzius, a professor at Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) and co-author of the recent study published in Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences.
