Wanted to summarize my favorite article which gives us data on how long immunity to natural infection or vaccination is expected to last (hint: years). Had chance to look at closely (sorry picture shows sperm, that is not related!). Dan J. Science. science.sciencemag.org/content/early/…
okay, so to remind us, there is innate immunity (non-specific immune response to infection that can actually get us in trouble with COVID-19 if too much) and adaptive immunity (humoral means antibodies; long-lived memory cells are B cells and T cells (CD4+ and CD8+) that will
protect us if we see the infection again. This study looked at 188 (80 male; 108 female) patients recovered from COVID-19 (93% mild; 7% hospitalized) over 8 months. Longitudinal samples assessed circulating antibodies, memory B cells, CD8+ T cells, and CD4+ T cells
over 8 months. Happily, memory B cells specific for the spike protein or receptor binding domain (RBD) were detected in almost all COVID-19 cases, with no apparent half-life at 5 to 8 months post-infection (go on and on!). Memory T cell half-lives were also long
over 6 months in this cohort (~125-225 days for CD8+ and ~94-153 days for CD4+ T cells), comparable to the 123 days half-life observed for memory CD8+ T cells after yellow fever immunization - this is aa vaccine usually given once over a lifetime!! Antibodies also lasted, but
slight declines over time with spike protein (also measured Abs to receptor binding protein). Super heartening paper that immune memory will be durable after COVID-19 natural infection or vaccination for SARS-CoV-2. Yay!!!
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