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SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – This is the question that worries many COVID-19 survivors: How long am I protected against this virus again?
A new study from a team at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology offers the clearest answer yet, and the results are being hailed as “good news”.
Researchers followed a group of COVID-19 survivors for up to eight months after their infection and found that about 95% had high levels of custom-made immune cells specially designed to fight SARS-Co-V2.
Their results suggest that the vast majority of COVID-19 survivors have the immune cells necessary to fight reinfection for at least eight months and potentially much longer, based on projections from the data collected so far.
“It certainly looks like there will be immune memory for several years and it wouldn’t be surprising if there is substantial immune memory for ten years,” said study co-author Dr Shane Crotty. , professor at LJI.
The team measured the levels of antibodies, memory B cells and two types of T cells in the blood of 188 patients with COVID-19, many of whom were in San Diego.
It was the largest study of its kind to measure the four components of immune memory for any virus, Dr Crotty said.
“The results for almost all of the measurements we took were better than we had hoped,” he said.
Although other studies have shown a potentially worrying drop in COVID-19 antibodies over time, LJI researchers have shown that other bespoke immune cells continue to stand guard in the body, ready to ring the bell. alarm and call for backup if a patient encounters the virus again.
“Our data suggests that the immune response is here – and it is staying,” said study co-author Dr. Alessandro Sette, another LJI professor.
The results suggest that about 5% of participants produce a weakened immune memory response. Dr Crotty suspects that a fraction of five percent is susceptible to a second infection, but said more research is needed to get a more accurate estimate.
The study follows another article on British healthcare workers published in December which found that COVID-19 antibodies offered protection for at least six months, if not longer.
JLI researchers looked at patients infected with the real virus, called a natural infection, but their findings offer an encouraging clue of vaccine resistance.
“If the memory seemed really strained, that would be a red flag for vaccines,” Crotty said. “That would mean there could be something particularly unusual about the peak.
Spike is the name of the spike-like protein of the coronavirus. The vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna require the body to create a simulated version of the spike protein to train the immune system.
The LJI results “are good signs for the vaccine, but the vaccines are not the infection,” Crotty said. He noted that the body responds to vaccines differently from natural infections. Some vaccines provide longer lasting protection than natural infection; with other vaccines, immunity does not last as long.
He said vaccine makers will need to continue studying inoculated patients to really understand how long vaccine protection will last.
In the meantime, the LJI team plans to continue measuring immune memory in patients with natural infections and to update its results periodically. With each update, researchers will get a better idea of how long protective immunity lasts, Crotty said.
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