Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

April 28, 2021

Longitudinal Analysis Shows Durable and Broad Immune Memory after SARS-CoV-2 Infection with Persisting Antibody Responses and Memory B and T Cells

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  • [Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Longitudinal assessment of immune memory response found that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies exhibited an initial rapid decline from peak levels followed by a much slower decrease (“plateau-phase”). Among 254 recovered COVID-19 patients up to 8 months after symptom onset, anti-spike IgG antibodies were estimated to have an initial half-life of 126 days up to 120 days after symptom onset, then a half-life of 238 days after 120 days from symptom onset. The authors suggest that this pattern is consistent with the generation of longer-lived antibody producing plasma cells. A similar biphasic pattern was observed with neutralizing antibodies, as the estimated half-life before and after 120 days from symptom onset was 150 days and 254 days, respectively. Of the 67 patients with data between 180-263 days after symptom onset, 48 (72%) continued to generate neutralizing antibodies. Half-life estimates of both CD4+ and CD8+ memory T cells were approximated at 200 days. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were observed to target different SARS-CoV-2 antigens, with CD8+ responses largely targeting the nucleocapsid protein and CD4+ response equally targeting several SARS-CoV-2 proteins.

Cohen et al. (Apr 27, 2021). Longitudinal Analysis Shows Durable and Broad Immune Memory after SARS-CoV-2 Infection with Persisting Antibody Responses and Memory B and T Cells. Pre-print downloaded Apr 28 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.19.21255739