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In light of the recent article from the UK discussing antibody waning - it’s important to read additional reports that show that while the antibodies are waning, they are not disappearing. This is expected and the natural course of an immune response.
1/ https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1321524334968492032
1/ https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1321524334968492032
After a primary infection, antibodies go sky high - along with the cells that produce them - and then after the virus clears, those cells must subside and the antibody production falls. Antibodies this wane, almost by definition, after a primary infection
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Importantly, the antibodies do go down and, like in the UK report may fall below the limit of detection. But like in the @SciImmunology paper above by @florian_krammer among others, when a more sensitive test is used, they often remain detectable...
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In many people though even those detectable antibodies may eventually become undetectable. The important thing to know is that the detectable antibodies are not the end all of immune protection...
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To form a good antibody, the cells undergo a lot of effort to figure out how to make it-that effort is stored in the body as a memory B cell. So even if the antibodies are no longer floating around, when someone gets a second infection, the B cell remembers and can act quickly
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The memory B cell - with the memory of the virus already formed - can act quick, can multiply, and can create new cells that rapidly start producing new antibodies after the second virus exposure.
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So while its encouraging/comforting to see the antibodies, their absence does not mean an absence of immune protection. The B cells remain T cells likely remain
It’s sort of like putting jets back on an aircraft carrier. They’re still there, ready, even if not flying about
7/7
It’s sort of like putting jets back on an aircraft carrier. They’re still there, ready, even if not flying about
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Correction above... it is a Science @ScienceMagazine paper... I wrote @SciImmunology ... though there have been a few additional papers in Science Immunology that have also shown this.
See this from @NIHDirector for two additional papers as well. The post discusses two additional and very nice recent papers published in @SciImmunology showing persistence of antibodies. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/10/20/two-studies-show-covid-19-antibodies-persist-for-months/
