ABOVE: Recovered COVID-19 patients can harbor SARS-CoV-2 (green) in the lining of their intestines months after infection. The residual viral traces might shape the immune response to the virus.
C. GAEBLER ET AL, BIOARXIV, 2020
Immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 lasts at least six months and might last much longer, according to a preprint posted November 5 on bioRxiv.
Among 87 individuals who had COVID-19, antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 dwindled after six months but were still detectable, the study’s authors found. A closer look at the samples of six of those patients revealed that the antibodies that remained six months after infection were, on average, more potent in neutralizing the virus than were antibodies generated only about a month after infection. And levels of the memory immune cells that make those more-potent antibodies did not drop off with time, the researchers report.
“This is fantastic news,” says immunologist Ziv Shulman ...
