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A medical professional applies a nasal swab during testing at Orange County Health Services’ Covid-19 self-service site at Barnett Park in Orlando, Florida, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020.
Joe Burbank | Tribune News Service | fake images
Cellular or “T-cell” immunity against Covid-19 is likely present in most adults six months after primary infection, a new study claims.
Research by the United Kingdom Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC), Public Health England and the University of Manchester NHS Foundation has found “robust T-cell responses” to the coronavirus virus six months after infection .
T cells are part of our immune system that attack cells that have been infected with a virus or other type of pathogen. Scientists have been investigating T-cell responses to coronavirus to see how long-lasting any immune response can be in people who have contracted and recovered from Covid-19.
This latest study looked at 100 people who tested positive for the coronavirus in March and April 2020, but who had not been hospitalized with the virus. All 100 people had experienced mild or moderate symptoms or were asymptomatic (56 versus 44 people), the study noted.
Serum samples were collected monthly to measure antibody levels, and blood samples were taken after six months to assess the cellular response (T cells) to the virus.
A variety of analyzes were carried out to assess different aspects of the T-cell response, including the magnitude of the response and the response to different virus proteins, the study noted.
“T-cell responses were present in all individuals six months after SARS-CoV-2 infection,” he said, indicating “that robust cellular memory against the virus persists for at least six months.”
However, the study found that “the size of the T-cell response differed between individuals, being considerably (50%) higher in people who had experienced symptomatic disease at the time of infection six months earlier.” The study has yet to be published or peer reviewed.
Covid-19 puzzle piece
The findings could improve our understanding of how coronavirus immunity works, as well as inform future vaccine strategies, noted the study, written by Dr Shamez Ladhani, a consultant epidemiologist at Public Health England.
“Cellular immunity is a complex but potentially very important piece of the Covid-19 puzzle, and it is important that more research be done in this area. However, early results show that T-cell responses may outlast the response. initial antibody testing, which could have a significant impact on Covid vaccine development and immunity research. ”
The study notes that more research is now needed to assess whether this immune response is sustained over the longer term and to better understand how the strength of the cellular immune response corresponds to the likelihood of reinfection.
Professor Paul Moss, head of the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium at the University of Birmingham, said more work was needed to find out if people who had Covid-19 symptoms were more certain of future reinfection.
“Interestingly, we found that cellular immunity is stronger at this time in those people who had a symptomatic infection compared to asymptomatic cases. We now need more research to find out if symptomatic people are better protected against reinfection in the future.”
