Korona Patients Become Immune For At Least Six Months – NRK Urix – Foreign News And Documentaries

A research group at the Rockefeller University in New York has examined the level of antibodies in the body of 87 patients who have suffered from the disease.

The group of patients was examined one month after illness and then again after six months.

After six months, the researchers found that the amount of antibodies in the blood had decreased, as several other studies have shown.

On the other hand, researchers believe that the memory cells of the immune system have become more powerful. Therefore, they are in a better position to produce antibodies that can attack the virus if they become infected again.

It is also believed that the body’s defenses can detect mutated versions of the virus.

– The main message is that the immune response persists, says Julio Lorenzi, one of the researchers behind the study.

Quality may be more important than quantity

The study has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

Immunology researcher at Oslo University Hospital Gunnveig Grødeland says there is a lot of research on the quality of antibodies that develop in coronary heart disease.

– An image has formed that the more seriously ill you have been, the higher the level of antibodies you have. But now they have started to look more at the quality of these antibodies and think that it may not be the levels that matter, but the quality of the immune response that is formed, Grødeland tells NRK.

– So even if you have had COVID-19 disease of a relatively moderate or mild degree, you may still have memory cells that can be activated and protect you from further infection. That’s good news.

And the fact that you still have memory cells in your body after six months may indicate that they stick around for a while.

Lifetime immunity?

Several candidate vaccines are now ready for approval. The effect of them varies between 70 and 95 percent, but nothing can yet be said about how long the immunity will last.

– It has not been studied whether those who have suffered the disease will have the effect of a vaccine. But if you already have responses by heart, a new exposure will increase their levels and the potential effect of them. They are trained to better recognize the virus, which should also help the protection last longer, says Grødeland.

In theory, vaccines can confer long-term, if not life-long, immunity to SARS-CoV-2. But viruses mutate. If it is a circulating coronavirus five years from now, it will probably be quite different from what we have now.

– We do not know to what extent the immune responses you get from the vaccine or infection will continue to protect against the mutated virus. But there is at least reason to believe that the memory cells it has formed will also be able to protect itself against future versions. The same possibly applies to antibodies that are formed against other parts of the coronary spine in addition to the tip where the virus attaches to host cells for infection. says Grødeland.

Much research remains

Anne-Marte Bakken Kran, chief physician in the department of infection control registries at FHI, says the new study is interesting and is in line with other findings in the field.

– There is also other data that indicates that the amount of antibodies decreases after a while, and you get more and better data on this now as time goes by and you can follow the first cases for a longer period of time, Kran tells him to NRK.

– One of the interesting things about this study is the findings they have made about a type of cell called memory B cells. These are cells that are reminiscent of the infectious substances the body is exposed to and ensure that it begins to produce antibodies quickly the next time it is exposed to the same microbe.

Much research is currently being done on the body’s ability to develop memory cells that can recognize and fight the virus.

– There is still a lot that you don’t know and more research is needed. But it is clear that knowledge of immunological memory is important to understand the development of the pandemic and also with regard to vaccination, says Kran.

She believes that time will tell if the body’s immune system and vaccination will eradicate the virus for good or if the immunity wears off over time.

– Now the virus has been circulating in much of the world for several months, and although some cases have been described in which someone has contracted the disease twice, not many have been mentioned. Therefore, most people will likely have an immunity that lasts for a few months after infection, but hopefully longer.

Several of the vaccines have been shown to give good immune responses, but to say anything about how long they last requires more observation time, Kran says.