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Prior exposure to coronaviruses that cause ordinary colds can boost the immune system’s ability to attack a vulnerable site on the COVID-19-causing coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding suggests a new vaccination strategy that might provide broader and more durable protection against SARS-CoV-2 strains compared with existing vaccines—and might also protect against other emergent coronaviral threats.

In the study, published Oct. 9 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the researchers analyzed human antibody responses to the base of SARS-CoV-2’s outer spike protein. This segment, known as the S2 subunit, mediates the coronavirus’s entry into a host cell, and because of this critical function does not vary much between different coronavirus subfamilies. Thus, targeting it successfully could help provide broad protection against existing and future coronavirus threats. Although exposure to SARS-CoV-2 alone elicits a weak antibody response against S2, the researchers found evidence that prior exposure to common cold coronaviruses, especially one called OC43, can prime the immune system for a much more effective anti-S2 response—one that may be able to neutralize a wide range of coronaviruses.