Australian scientists have described the evolution of immunity levels up to four months following COVID-19 infection, finding that while antibody levels drop dramatically in the first one to two months, the decrease then slows down substantially.
The findings suggest that protective COVID-19 vaccines should ideally generate stronger antibody responses than natural infection.
The research team, including University of Melbourne Dr Jennifer Juno, a Senior Research Fellow at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), have been investigating how the immune system, particularly B and T cells, responds to the COVID-19 spike protein.
The spike protein enables SARS-CoV-2 to attach and enter cells in humans and is crucial in inducing neutralising antibodies to protect from re-infection.
B cells are responsible for producing the antibodies that recognise SARS-CoV-2, while T cells play an important role in supporting the development of the B cell response.
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