DAY 11 - Two Days after Nasal Swab Exposure - Stanford does flu virus nasal infection test with college students - Natural Killer cells offer major protection.

Tuesday - 
Jerry's Temperature as of 11:30 PM Eastern: Normal - 
Symptoms: None -
Covid Antigen Test: (to be conducted Wed morning Jan 12)It's been nearly 48 hours since I took the virus coated Q-tip from my son (which he had just rubbed inside his Covid infected nose for 20 seconds) and swirled it 5 times in my left nostril.  This second Covid nasal swab experiment is being done since my first 10 day experiment in trying to contract Covid-19 from family members at extremely close proximity failed (or maybe succeeded depending on how you look at it).  Since a healthy nasal microbiome (beneficial bacteria) has been shown to protect from Covid, this will be interesting.

Harvard & Duke Students Give Clue to Viral Infections

Researchers at Stanford organized a similar study in which 55 college students from Duke and Harvard University graciously volunteered to sniff up live influenza virus in the name of science. 

Even after this large direct injection of live flu virus deep into their nose, while some did get the flu, a number of students did not become sick.  After analyzing blood differences between both groups, lead researcher, Dr. Purvesh Khatri and Graduate student Erika Bongen found a major difference in immune cells in both groups. 

 “We found that a type of immune cell called a natural killer cell was consistently low at baseline in individuals who got infected,”  Those who had a higher proportion of natural killer cells had better immune defenses and fought off illness. 

So, Dr. Khatri has just showed us that having low numbers of natural killer cells increases infection while having high natural killer cells prevents infection. Certainly worthwhile information to know. 

In fact, a number of studies have shown people with severe Covid-19 symptoms also have impaired natural killer cells.  This was described in the 2020 study below in the journal "blood advances" and linked at the bottom of this post.

In tomorrow's post I am going to discuss fascinating research showing the plant polyphenol compound called Resveratrol (found in grapes, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries) increases natural killer cell numbers by "turning-on" genes in the NK cell that control replication. Cool stuff huh!

Are we Killing our Natural Killer Cells?
But the next fascinating part of the equation is that I have also located nearly a dozen studies showing that of all immune cells we have protecting us from viruses - for some reason, our natural killer cells are especially vulnerable to damage AFTER exposure to a number of environmental sources including vehicle exhaust and pesticides (reported at my page coronanlm.com).

Other studies have shown major improvements in natural killer cell numbers and efficiency from natural and even artificially induced fever (from external heating).  Without any doubt, the science of natural killer cell quality is one we all should be paying close attention. 

Go to DAY 12

STUDIES DISCUSSED IN THIS POST
Natural Killer Cells and Influenza - click here
Natural Killer Cells low in Covid patients - click here