Immune cells are responding to Covid six months after infection, study finds
PUBLISHED TUE, NOV 3 2020 8:01 AM EST
UPDATED TUE, NOV 3 2020 3:56 PM EST
Holly Ellyatt
@HOLLYELLYATT
- Cellular, or “T-cell,” immunity against Covid-19 is likely to be present within most adults six months after primary infection, a new study said.
- Research by the U.K. Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC), Public Health England and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has found “robust T-cell responses” to the coronavirus virus six months after infection.
Cellular, or “T-cell,” immunity against Covid-19 is likely to be present within most adults six months after primary infection,
a new study said.
Research by the U.K. Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC), Public Health England and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has found “robust T-cell responses” to the
coronavirus six months after infection.
T-cells are a part of our immune system that attack cells which have been infected with a virus or other kind of pathogen and they help other antibody-producing cells in the immune system. Scientists have been investigating T-cell responses to the coronavirus to see how lasting any immune response might be in individuals who have caught, and recovered from, Covid-19.
This latest study looked at 100 individuals who had tested positive for the coronavirus in March and April of 2020 but had not been hospitalized with the virus. All 100 individuals had experienced either mild or moderate symptoms or were asymptomatic (56 versus 44 people), the study noted.
Serum samples were collected monthly to measure antibody levels, and blood samples were taken after six months to assess the cellular (T-cell) response to the virus.
A range of analyses were carried out to assess different aspects of the T-cell response including the magnitude of response and the response to different proteins from the virus, the study noted.
"T-cell responses were present in all individuals at six months after SARS-CoV-2 infection . . .
