Covid study shows the presence of long-lasting immune cells in mild or moderately infected people

Covid study shows the presence of long-lasting immune cells in mild or moderately infected people.

A study has shown for the first time that people with a mild COVID infection produce a type of immune cell capable of making antibodies against the coronavirus that will be present in their bodies for the rest of their lives.

One of the apparently disturbing observations in people infected with SARS-CoV-2 indicated that their level of antibodies – proteins capable of preventing the virus from entering cells – begins to decline after around four months.

The key is to know if, despite the fact that the antibodies fall, the patient has developed a complete immune response, which also includes the creation of white blood cells with memory, capable of remembering and eliminating the virus many months and even years after the first infection.

Several studies have shown that this is the case, so that people who pass the infection and those who are vaccinated generate a cellular immune response that protects them against reinfections.

Good news for mild or moderate sufferers

The new work, which was published in Nature, however, brings some very good news. Those responsible have analysed 77 patients who had a mild or moderate disease (this is the group about which there were doubts). In most of them, they saw that the antibodies decline sharply after four months, but then the reduction is slower and these molecules are still present in the bloodstream for up to 11 months after infection.

Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine and lead author of the study, highlights: “Long-lived plasma cells can last a lifetime.” These cells “will continue to produce antibodies forever,” he added.

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