Med (N Y) . Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 specific B- and T-cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 patients 6-8 months after the infection

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Med (N Y)


. 2021 Feb 10.
doi: 10.1016/j.medj.2021.02.001. Online ahead of print.
Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 specific B- and T-cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 patients 6-8 months after the infection


Natalia Sherina ¹ , Antonio Piralla ² , Likun Du ¹ , Hui Wan ¹ , Makiko Kumagai-Braesch ³ , Juni Andr?ll ⁴ , Sten Braesch-Andersen ⁵ , Irene Cassaniti ² , Elena Percivalle ² , Antonella Sarasini ² , Federica Bergami ² , Raffaella Di Martino ² , Marta Colaneri ⁶ , Marco Vecchia ⁶ , Margherita Sambo ⁶ , Valentina Zuccaro ⁶ , Raffaele Bruno ⁶ , Michele Sachs ⁶ , Tiberio Oggionni ⁷ , Federica Meloni ⁸ , Hassan Abolhassani ⁹ , Federico Bertoglio ¹⁰ , Maren Schubert ¹⁰ , Miranda Byrne-Steele ¹¹ , Jian Han ^{11 12} , Michael Hust ¹⁰ , Yintong Xue ¹³ , Lennart Hammarstr?m ⁹ , Fausto Baldanti ^{2 14} , Harold Marcotte ⁹ , Qiang Pan-Hammarstr?m ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 33589885
• PMCID: PMC7874960
• DOI: 10.1016/j.medj.2021.02.001

Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: Monitoring the adaptive immune responses during the natural course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection provides useful information for the development of vaccination strategies against this virus and its emerging variants. We thus profiled the serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels and specific memory B- and T-cell responses in convalescent coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients.
Methods: Altogether 119 samples from 88 convalescent donors who experienced mild to critical disease were tested for the presence of elevated anti-spike and anti-receptor binding domain antibody levels over a period of eight months. In addition, level of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, specific memory B- and T-cell responses were tested in a subset of samples.
Findings: Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were present in 85% of the samples collected within 4 weeks after onset of symptoms in COVID-19 patients. Levels of specific IgM/IgA antibodies declined after 1 month while levels of specific IgG antibodies and plasma neutralizing activities remained relatively stable up to 6 months after diagnosis. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies were still present, though at a significantly lower level, in 80% of the samples collected at 6-8 months after symptom onset. SARS-CoV-2-specific memory B- and T-cell responses developed with time and were persistent in all patients followed up till 6-8 months.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that protective adaptive immunity following natural infection of SARS-CoV-2 might persist for at least 6-8 months, regardless of disease severity. Development of medium or long-term protective immunity through vaccination might thus be possible.
Funding: EU-ATAC consortium, the Italian Ministry of Health and SciLife/KAW.

Keywords: B cell; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; T cell; antibody; immunity; immunological memory; longevity of immune response.