Immune cells linked to Covid-19 could remain in the body for years, a US study reveals

The duration of personal immunity to the coronavirus is a crucial issue in this struggle for health. If at the start of the pandemic, scientists suggested that one was long-term immune after contracting Covid-19, it has been found that some people around the world have developed the virus twice in a row.

A new study published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suggests our coronavirus immunity could last for years, if not decades. More than six months after their infection, people who have recovered from the disease still have enough protective cells to repel the virus and prevent the disease, data from one study shows blood tests on 185 elderly patients. from 19 to 81 years old. A low rate of decline of these cells in the short term suggests that they may remain in the body for a very long time.

“This amount of memory in the body would likely prevent the vast majority of people from being hospitalized for serious illness for many years.“Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, who co-led this study, told The New York Times.

Although complete, the hypothesis of the study has not yet been corroborated by a scientific journal or by other representatives of the medical sphere, however, points out the New York newspaper.

However, this research is in line with many other studies published by different laboratories. Researchers at the University of Washington had shown that some “memory” cells produced as a result of a SARS-CoV-2 infection persist for at least three months in the body. Another study, published last week in the monthly “Nature Medecine”, reveals that people cured of the coronavirus have powerful immune cells even when the antibodies are undetectable.

While the level of antibodies present in the body after a Covid-19 infection tends to decrease, antibodies are only part of the human immune system. These immune cells, mentioned in the study, which keep the virus in memory, are most often responsible for preventing severe forms of the disease. Furthermore, “antibody immunity is not the one that occurs the most,” says immunologist Alessandro Sette, who participated in the study.