Mitochondria, immunity and Covid
Just when I was thinking posts about mitochondria had dried up along comes a really intriguing finding. This intriguing finding concerned the effects of the Covid 19 Astrazenica vaccine and was published this January by Trinity College Dublin1.. In the Republic of Ireland AZ’s DNA vaccines were dropped in favour of the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer due to the concerns raised about adverse responses to the vaccine amongst the young. TCD’s findings however have shown that recipients of the AZ DNA vaccine are showing long-term increased immunity to a wide range of so called ‘non-target’ pathogens.
I picked up on this publication as anecdotally my wife and I ( both AZ recipients) had been puzzled by our lack of infections through the past two winters. Nothing, not a cold nor a sore throat. We would get the initial symptoms of various infections many times only to find six hours later they were gone. Repeatedly we had remarked on this oddity.
Anyway, it turns out that it is all due to the innate immune system. I confess I was hazy on the very existence of a separate immune system to what I now know is the adaptive immune system. It also transpires that the training of the innate system is all the rage today. The innate immune system is very ancient and is a multifactorial defence against ‘non-self’ invaders found in most living creatures from insects to fungi.
Our innate immune system, simplified, revolves around large white blood cells called monocytes. These are short lived cells capable of destroying bacteria and virus-filled infected cells by phagocytosis, in other words by eating them. They are also able to participate in so-called cross-talk communications with other parts of the immune system via the cytokine signalling network. The innate immune system has a good memory, possibly even inheritable. The monocytes are short-lived and it is supposed that the memory ( created by epigenetic modification of DNA) resides in the progenitor cells. These cells are similar to and derived from stem cells but can only give rise to one type of cell, in this case monocytes.
It gets very interesting when looking at the training of the innate system. In this context training means activating it to be on the alert for pathogenic changes such as bacteria or cancer-transformed cells. Regarding vaccination, the BCG vaccination and the Astrazenica vaccination have a training effect. The work on AZ is new but the off-target health benefits of BCG have been well known for many years.
It is the simple molecules that activate the system, namely beta-glycans (sugary molecules found in cereals) fumarate ( a TCA cycle intermediate) and squalene as from extra-virgin olive oils (EVO), from shark oil and now famously found in vaccine adjuvants.
At last this is where the mitochondria come in! Trained monocytes have, more, larger mitochondria with many cristae, high membrane potentials, multiple inter-mitochondrial fusions and higher ox-phos ratios than in non trained monocytes. Together these factors point to a powered up cell with deep reserves of energy.
Of the training agents, fumarate will stimulate mitochondrial TCA activity and so generate energy via the membrane electrical energy and squalene is a precursor of cholesterol which in turn is essential for the electrical integrity needed for the high inner membrane potentials and an effective free radical shield provided by the outer membrane.
So, here we go again, chicken v egg. Trained immunity is dependent on mitochondrial performance because training factors directly affect mitochondria: mitochondria are the watchdogs of cell health.
Why? Because the cell is their home.
