A recently conducted research funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), found that the immune system retains a memory of the infection after people recover from COVID-19. Immune cells and proteins that circulate in the body can recognise and kill the pathogen if it is encountered again, protecting against disease and reducing illness severity.

 

The immune protection involves components like antibodies that are the proteins that circulate in the blood and recognise viruses and neutralise them and different types of T cells help recognise and kill pathogens. B cells make new antibodies when the body needs them.

These components have been found in recently-recovered COVID-19 patients. But the details of this immune response and how long it lasts after infection have been unclear. 

The researchers found durable immune responses in the majority of people studied. Antibodies against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which the virus uses to get inside cells, were found in 98 percent of participants one month after symptom onset. 

In the research, it was observed that the virus-specific B cells increased over time in recently-recovered COVID-19 patients. They had more memory B cells six months after symptom onset than one month afterwards.