Antibodies that people make to fight the new coronavirus last for at least four months after diagnosis and, as some previous reports suggest, do not fade quickly, scientists have found.
Tuesday’s report, from tests on more than 1,000,000 people in Iceland, is the most comprehensive work on the immune system’s response to the virus over time, and is good news for efforts to develop vaccines.
If a vaccine can stimulate the production of long-lasting antibodies that seem to be a natural infection, it is hoped that “immunity to this unpredictable and highly contagious virus cannot be transient,” wrote National Scientists at Harvard University and the U.S. Institute of Health. Is. A comment published with the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
One of the big secrets of the epidemic is whether having coronavirus protects against future infections and for how long. Some small studies have suggested that antibodies may disappear quickly and that some people with some or fewer symptoms may not make many.
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The new study was conducted by Rexavic-based DCOID genetics, a subsidiary of US biotech company Mgen, along with several Icelandic hospitals, universities and health officials. About 15% of the country’s population has been tested since the end of February, when its first COVID-19 cases were found, providing a solid basis for comparison.
Scientists used two different types of coronavirus tests: types from other samples that detected nasal swabs or bits of the virus, indicating infection, and tests measuring antibodies in the blood, which could show if someone was infected now or in the past.
Blood samples from 30,576 people were analyzed using various methods, and at least two of the antibody tests were considered positive if any were positive. This includes people who are hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19 without symptoms.
In a subgroup who tested positive, further testing found that antibodies increased two months after their initial diagnosis of infection and then platelet edema and remained stable for four months.
Previous studies have suggested that antibodies fade rapidly, perhaps the immune system is seeing the first wave of antibodies in response to infection; That study mostly looks at 28 days after diagnosis. A second wave of antibodies forms two months after infection, and this seems more stable and longer, the researchers said.
The results do not mean that the population of all countries will be the same, or that everyone has this kind of response. Other scientists have recently documented at least two cases where people think the coronavirus was re-infected months after their first visit.
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The new study does not establish how much or what type of antibody provides immunity or protection – it is unknown.
The study also found:
– About half of the people who were found to be infected by the blood antibody test were tested by the beat-of-virus method, which is usually done in community settings. This means that blood tests are more reliable and better for the spread of the disease in a region and to guide decisions and return to work or school, the researchers say.
– About a third of the infections were in people who did not report any symptoms.
– About 1% of Iceland’s population was infected in this first wave of the epidemic, meaning another 99% are still susceptible to the virus.
– The infection mortality rate was 0.3%. That’s three times the seasonal flu mortality rate, and given some other recent estimates, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s critical care chief, Dr.
Although many studies are reporting mortality based on specific groups such as hospitalized patients, mortality in all people infected with coronavirus is unknown.
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Angus said the news that natural antibodies would not disappear quickly would be “encouraging for people working on vaccines.”
