iScience (Feb 2022)

Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 up to 15 months after infection

  • Harold Marcotte,
  • Antonio Piralla,
  • Fanglei Zuo,
  • Likun Du,
  • Irene Cassaniti,
  • Hui Wan,
  • Makiko Kumagai-Braesh,
  • Juni Andréll,
  • Elena Percivalle,
  • Josè Camilla Sammartino,
  • Yating Wang,
  • Stelios Vlachiotis,
  • Janine Attevall,
  • Federica Bergami,
  • Alessandro Ferrari,
  • Marta Colaneri,
  • Marco Vecchia,
  • Margherita Sambo,
  • Valentina Zuccaro,
  • Erika Asperges,
  • Raffaele Bruno,
  • Tiberio Oggionni,
  • Federica Meloni,
  • Hassan Abolhassani,
  • Federico Bertoglio,
  • Maren Schubert,
  • Luigi Calzolai,
  • Luca Varani,
  • Michael Hust,
  • Yintong Xue,
  • Lennart Hammarström,
  • Fausto Baldanti,
  • Qiang Pan-Hammarström

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 2
p. 103743

Abstract

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Summary: Information concerning the longevity of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following natural infection may have considerable implications for durability of immunity induced by vaccines. Here, we monitored the SARS-CoV-2 specific immune response in COVID-19 patients followed up to 15 months after symptoms onset. Following a peak at day 15–28 postinfection, the IgG antibody response and plasma neutralizing titers gradually decreased over time but stabilized after 6 months. Compared to G614, plasma neutralizing titers were more than 8-fold lower against variants Beta, Gamma, and Delta. SARS-CoV-2-specific memory B and T cells persisted in the majority of patients up to 15 months although a significant decrease in specific T cells, but not B cells, was observed between 6 and 15 months. Antiviral specific immunity, especially memory B cells in COVID-19 convalescent patients, is long-lasting, but some variants of concern may at least partially escape the neutralizing activity of plasma antibodies.

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