[ad_1]
PARIS, France (AFP) – People may be able to fight off reinfection for at least six months after recovering from COVID-19, thanks to cells able to “remember” the virus, according to a study released Monday.
Researchers in the United States and Switzerland studied dozens of people who had recovered from COVID-19 and found that while their antibodies may wear off over time, they maintain specific memory B cell levels. .
These cells can remember the pathogen and can, if faced with reinfection, trigger the immune system to restart the production of anti-virus antibodies.
Receive the daily edition of The Times of Israel by email and never miss our best articles Sign up for free
“Memory responses are responsible for protection against reinfection and are essential for effective vaccination,” concludes the study published in the journal Nature. “The observation that memory B cell responses do not decay after 6.2 months, but continue to evolve, strongly suggests that people infected with SARS-CoV-2 might respond quickly and effectively to the virus when ‘a re-exposure. ”
The authors evaluated 87 people with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 just over a month and six months after infection.
Although they found that the activity of virus-neutralizing antibodies decreased over time, the number of memory B cells remained unchanged.
The researchers said their study indicated that the memory B cell response to the coronavirus evolved over the course of six months after infection, in the presence of residual viral proteins in the body – allowing the cells to make stronger antibodies.
How long can people fight off reinfection with the novel coronavirus and what immune process is involved are critical in predicting the dynamics of the pandemic.
Previous research had raised concerns that it showed that neutralizing antibodies can decline rapidly after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But more recent studies have highlighted the role of other parts of the immune system in long-term immunity.
An article published in the journal Science this month suggested that almost all major parts of the immune system that can learn to recognize and repel a new pathogen could continue to respond to the virus for at least eight months.
This included memory B cells specific to the protein spikes, which the researchers found actually increased in the blood six months after infection.
The article was based on analyzes of blood samples from 188 patients with COVID-19.
[ad_2]
Source link