Agence France-PresseJanuary 19, 2021 10:04:27 IST
People may be able to fight off relapse for at least six months after they get past Covid-19 thanks to cells that can “remember” the virus, which according to a study published Monday. Researchers in the United States and Switzerland studied dozens of people who had contracted Covid-19 and found that while their antibodies may decline over time, they maintained cell levels. special B memory. These cells can remember the pathogen and can, if they are resistant to relapse, stimulate the immune system to restart the production of viral antibodies.
“Memory responses depend on protection from relapse and are essential for effective vaccination,” concluded the study, published in the journal Nature.
“The observation that memory cell B responses do not decay after 6.2 months, but instead continue to grow, strongly suggests that individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 may respond quickly and effective to the virus upon re-exposure. “
The authors evaluated 87 individuals with confirmed Covid-19 testing at just over a month and six months after infection. While they found that virus antibody activity decreased with time, the number of B memory cells remained unchanged.
Researchers said their study showed that the memory cell B response to the coronavirus increases in the six months after infection in the presence of viral residual proteins in the body – enabling the cells to more to produce a powerful.
Most coronavirus vaccines target the protein spike on the virus – which we know from ancient viruses and studies, is also a target for the immune system. Image: Wikimedia Commons
How long humans can fight against relapse to the new coronavirus and what immune process is involved is crucial in predicting the dynamics of the pandemic. Previous research has raised concerns by showing that the neutralization of antibodies can rapidly decline after infection with SARS-CoV-2.
But more recent studies have shown the role of other parts of the immune system in long-term immunity.
One paper published in the journal Science this month suggested that almost every key part of the immune system that learns to recognize and reactivate a new pathogen could continue to respond to the virus for at least eight months. This involved protein-specific spike B memory cells, which the researchers actually found increased in blood six months after infection. The paper was based on analyzes of blood samples from 188 Covid-19 patients.