Immunity
Will our immune systems learn — and remember — how to cope with the new threat? Will vaccines be protective and long-lasting - Helen Branswell
image by: Science
HWN Recommends
Four scenarios on how we might develop immunity to Covid-19
A great deal of conflicting information has emerged about the immune response that develops in patients who have recovered from Covid-19. A recent study in the UK showed declining antibodies in more than 350,000 people, leading to headlines that immunity wanes rapidly just months after infection.
The next day, another study concluded the opposite: in more than 30,000 patients in New York City, the majority showed high levels of IgG antibodies, which are the type of antibodies that typically neutralise Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Naturally this is very confusing. Is Sars-Cov-2 a superpowered virus that can subvert the immune systems that protect us so effectively against…
Resources
Immunity: An overview of coronavirus's biggest foe
Thankfully, we’ve got a defense against these microbial freeloaders: our immune systems. Dozens (or even hundreds, depending on which immunologists you ask) of types of cells patrol our bodies to look out for trouble, flagging and dismantling threatening pathogens while ignoring benign visitors (like our friendly, neighborhood microbiomes).
Most Americans Have Had COVID-19. That Doesn't Mean They Won't Get It Again
A study from U.K. researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine in March found that infection-related immunity stays strong for up to a year, then began to wane—whereas the protection offered by two doses of a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine begins to wane at around six months.
New Test Can Show If You’ve Had COVID-19, Even If Antibodies Fade
This test could show how many people have really had COVID-19, as well as information on how long immunity lasts and how well vaccines are working. A T cell test for COVID may help provide a retroactive diagnosis for people who may be suffering the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 — and with it, a sense of clarity and closure.
Show Your Immune System Some Love
Antibodies are great and all, but macrophages, B cells, and helper T cells deserve some attention too.
This is what long-term immunity to Covid-19 might look like
This is what long-term immunity to Covid-19 might look like.
What we’ve learned about how our immune system fights COVID-19
Immune responses fall on a spectrum. Our bodies develop lifelong immunity to viruses like hepatitis A or measles, while HIV, on the other end, can evade our bodies’ defenses for as long as we live. “Fortunately, SARS-CoV-2 is closer to the hepatitis A end of the spectrum,” says Andrea Cox, a viral immunologist at Johns Hopkins University. “It's not the easiest virus, but it's nowhere near HIV.”
How SARS-CoV-2 Evades And Suppresses The Immune System
Anyone who has engaged in hand to hand combat—for that is what it feels like—with cancer, AIDS, or any of the other great diseases of our time knows how formidable our foe is. Evolution, the same force that gifted us with the intelligence to understand our world, has crafted diseases of great subtlety that seem to slip through our grasp just as we think we have a firm grip. Yes, we have had success in developing Covid-19 vaccines, and new and effective treatments appear to be just around the corner. Yet at the same time, a chill wind of doubt disturbs our optimism...
How the Aging Immune System Makes Older People Vulnerable to Covid-19
As we age, the immune system begins to shift into a heightened state of alert, dialing up inflammation and running out of certain immune cells.
New Evidence Of Immune Suppression By SARS-CoV-2
For the first several days the virus suppresses the host’s ability to defend itself long enough to proliferate and transmit to other people. It is only after viral load peaks that natural immunity, also known as innate immunity, appears to kick in and counteract replication.
Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibody may help non-hospitalized patients recover faster, early data show
Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibody may help non-hospitalized patients recover faster, early data show.
The people with hidden immunity against Covid-19
While the latest research suggests that antibodies against Covid-19 could be lost in just three months, a new hope has appeared on the horizon: the enigmatic T cell.
The Science Behind Why Children Fare Better With Covid-19
Children’s innate immune systems help fend off the virus more effectively than those of adults.
We’re Zeroing In On the ‘Holy Grail’ of COVID-19 Immunity
There’s no good way of measuring whether your vaccine worked—yet.
The immune system: How to boost it and lower your immune age
Your immune system stands between you and deadly infections. But as you get older so does your immune age, making you more susceptible to disease. Fortunately, we are discovering plenty of things you can do to turn back the clock and stay healthy.
Can Face Masks Really Help You Gain Immunity To Covid-19 Coronavirus?
But there’s possibly potentially perhaps something else. Gandhi and Rutherford postulate that an ordinary face mask could actually work a bit like a vaccine and give you immunity against the Covid-19 coronavirus. A vaccine? How? Are you supposed to inject the mask into your arm? No, and please don’t do that. The thought is that a mask could help you gain immunity through “variolation.”
How the Aging Immune System Makes Older People Vulnerable to Covid-19
As we age, the immune system begins to shift into a heightened state of alert, dialing up inflammation and running out of certain immune cells.
Immunology Is Where Intuition Goes to Die
Which is too bad because we really need to understand how the immune system reacts to the coronavirus.
Trump May Be Immune to the Coronavirus. But for How Long?
A unique treatment course may have blunted his body’s production of antibodies, scientists warn.
You’re A Covid-19 Survivor — How Long Will Your Immunity Last?
We still don’t know the answer to this “key unsolved question” but now we’re a little closer. Specifically, we now know that the answer for some very closely related viruses is “not very long”.
Can we actually learn to live with coronavirus? Not until we have a vaccine
In trying to answer the question, the concept of “herd immunity” – when around 60% of the population is immune to a disease – is often invoked. But this term is not well understood. Control of an infectious disease through build-up of natural immunity in the population has never been achieved before. Herd immunity works through targeted vaccination, and we do not yet have a vaccine for COVID-19.
Charting a Covid-19 Immune Response
To quash the virus, the immune system unleashes an arsenal of powerful weapons. Sometimes these turn inward and destroy healthy tissues. Combatting this friendly fire has become as crucial a part of the Covid-19 treatment strategy as subduing the virus itself.
COVID-19 and the Path to Immunity
The emergence of adaptive immunity in response to the novel Betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), occurs within the first 7 to 10 days of infection.
Covid-19: Do many people have pre-existing immunity?
It seemed a truth universally acknowledged that the human population had no pre-existing immunity to SARS-CoV-2, but is that actually the case? Peter Doshi explores the emerging research on immunological responses.
Here’s the Deal With Antibodies and Coronavirus Immunity
Antibodies will probably be key to getting us out of this—in one way or another.
How Long Does COVID-19 Immunity Last?
A new study from King’s College London inspired a raft of headlines suggesting that immunity might vanish in months. The truth is a lot more complicated—and, thankfully, less dire.
How Long Will Immunity To The Coronavirus Last?
Antibodies help ward off infections. In some diseases, they can prevent re-infection, though scientists can't say for sure if that's true for the coronavirus. And it's also not clear how long antibodies linger.
Immunology Is Where Intuition Goes to Die
Which is too bad because we really need to understand how the immune system reacts to the coronavirus.
Scientists are reporting several cases of Covid-19 reinfection — but the implications are complicated
Immunologists had expected that if the immune response generated after an initial infection could not prevent a second case, then it should at least stave off more severe illness.
Scientists See Signs of Lasting Immunity to Covid-19, Even After Mild Infections
New research indicates that human immune system cells are storing information about the coronavirus so they can fight it off again.
What scientists are learning about how long Covid-19 immunity lasts
Covid-19 antibody testing, long-term immunity, vaccines, herd immunity (and more!), explained.
What scientists know about Covid-19 immunity can help us fight the pandemic
Scientists only became aware of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, late last year. Most of our immune systems, meanwhile, have still never heard of it. For now, the millions of people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus have to rely on their bodies—rather than a vaccine or targeted medication—to fight off the virus.
Why Does COVID-19 Hit Men Harder? A New Study Reveals Big Clues
Men produce a weaker immune response to the virus than do women, the study finds.
Why We Can’t Rely On Natural Immunity To Protect Us From Covid-19
There is a question that has crossed all our minds at some point, yet has no satisfactory answer: If I’m infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, how long am I immune? A more technical way of asking the same question is: How long do anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that bind to the spike protein persist?
Some Vaccines Last a Lifetime. Here’s Why Covid-19 Shots Don’t
Researchers have calculated a key number—the threshold of protection—for other vaccines. Covid-19’s is still a mystery.
COVID super-immunity: one of the pandemic’s great puzzles
People who have previously recovered from COVID-19 have a stronger immune response after being vaccinated than those who have never been infected. Scientists are trying to find out why.
Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find
Important immune cells survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected with the virus or were inoculated against it, new research suggests.
What We Actually Know About Waning Immunity
Reports of vaccines’ decline have been greatly overstated.
“Inescapable” COVID-19 Antibody Discovery – Neutralizes All Known SARS-CoV-2 Strains
An antibody therapy that appears to neutralize all known SARS-CoV-2 strains, and other coronaviruses, was developed with a little help from structural biologist Jay Nix.
New Studies Find Evidence Of 'Superhuman' Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals
These findings show how powerful the mRNA vaccines can be in people with prior exposure to SARS-CoV-2, she says. "There's a lot of research now focused on finding a pan-coronavirus vaccine that would protect against all future variants. Our findings tell you that we already have it.
Immunity To COVID-19 Could Last Longer Than You'd Think
A series of new studies, including two led by Ellebedy, suggests that mRNA vaccines like those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna trigger the immune system to establish long-term protection against severe COVID-19 — protection that likely will last several years or even longer, Ellebedy says.
Immunity Types
There are two types of immunity: active and passive.
New research suggests immunity to COVID is better than we first thought
It would seem SARS-CoV-2 is not like its normal common cold coronavirus cousins. People’s immune responses to common cold coronaviruses typically don’t last very long, meaning we typically get reinfected by 12 months. But it’s clear people’s immune systems can “remember” and respond to SARS-CoV-2. Interestingly, more severe coronavirus infections SARS and MERS appear to elicit longer-lasting responses up to three years.
Who Is Immune to the Coronavirus?
Important decisions about this question are being made, as they must be, based on only glimmers of data.
Why Some COVID-19 Patients Crash: The Body's Immune System Might Be To Blame
It's a strange and tragic pattern in some cases of COVID-19: The patient struggles through the first week of illness, and perhaps even begins to feel a little better. Then suddenly they crash.
Four scenarios on how we might develop immunity to Covid-19
As the world wearies of trying to suppress the SARS-CoV-2 virus, many of us are wondering what the future will look like as we try to learn to live with it. Will it always have the capacity to make us so sick? Will our immune systems learn — and remember — how to cope with the new threat? Will vaccines be protective and long-lasting?
Introducing Stitches!
Your Path to Meaningful Connections in the World of Health and Medicine
Connect, Collaborate, and Engage!
Coming Soon - Stitches, the innovative chat app from the creators of HWN. Join meaningful conversations on health and medical topics. Share text, images, and videos seamlessly. Connect directly within HWN's topic pages and articles.