Health Team

Duke study: Why are women better at fighting COVID?

A team of scientists at Duke Health have figured out why women are better at fighting off severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Posted Updated

By
Adam Owens
, WRAL anchor/reporter
DURHAM, N.C. — Women seem to have an advantage over men in the COVID pandemic. They face severe symptoms at about half the rate of men. But why is that?

A team of scientists at Duke Health have figured out why women are better at fighting off severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Their research shows women have a special immune cell that is really good at fighting infections in lung tissue.

Since COVID affects the lungs, these cells are well-equipped to fight off the virus before it causes breathing issues.

Scientists found these cells were more common in the blood of healthy women than healthy men.

WRAL spoke with the Duke researchers behind this discovery to understand how it might aid in the battle against the pandemic.

Dr. Daniel Saban, an associate professor at Duke’s Department of Immunology, says his experiment started last spring.

He looked closely at blood samples and found healthy women had more of a particular white blood cell than healthy men – they are called MAIT cells.

Those cells are important to immune defense.

In COVID patients, the cells gathered in the lungs to fight off the COVID infection.

This discovery could lead to research on how MAIT cells provide infection protection.

“We still don’t know exactly how MAIT cells are offering the protection," said Saban. "But by finding that, that may also give therapeutic targets for future remedies.”

The discovery might also boost research in how these cells can be boosted in men.

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