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That prospect has led many scientists to hope that T cells will serve as an effective backup when antibodies fail. If these immune cells can fight Omicron, they may prevent many infections from turning into severe disease.

After a cell is infected with the coronavirus, T cells can learn to recognize fragments of viral proteins that end up on the cell's outer surface. The T cells then kill the infected cell, or alert the immune system to launch a stronger attack against the virus.

Alessandro Sette, an immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and Andrew Redd of the National Institutes of Health reported that despite Omicron’s many mutations, most of the protein fragments recognized by T cells are identical to those of other variants.

Those findings suggest that T cells trained by vaccines or previous infections will respond aggressively to Omicron, rather than standing by. “It appears the T cell response is largely preserved,” Dr. Sette said.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/healt...ggest.html