April 29, 2020

Long-term Coexistence of SARS-CoV-2 with Antibody Response in COVID-19 Patients

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

• Wang et investigated whether antibodies are important for the adaptive immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 infection in 26 COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms in Jinan, China. They report of a subset of patients with both SRAS-CoV-2 and virus-specific IgG coexisting for an unexpectedly long time, with two cases for up to 50 days. One COVID-19 patient who did not produce any SARS-CoV-2-bound IgG successfully cleared SARS-CoV-2 after 46 days of illness, revealing that innate immunity alone may still be powerful enough to eliminate SARS-CoV-2. This report may provide a basis for further analysis of both innate and adaptive immunity in SARS-CoV-2 clearance, especially in non-severe cases.

Wang et al. (April 28, 2020). Long-term Coexistence of SARS-CoV-2 with Antibody Response in COVID-19 Patients. Journal of Medical Virology.  https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25946