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Research staff of IrsiCaixa -centre jointly promoted by the La Caixa Foundation and the Department of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya-, in collaboration with the Center for Research in Animal Health (CReSA) of the Institute for Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), has shown in a new study that
the majority of people who have passed Covid-19, regardless of the severity of the symptoms, present neutralizing antibodies
beyond a year after infection.
The scientific team has observed that, although
in the case of hospitalized patients
the production of antibodies is higher,
their ability to block new variants of the coronavirus is more affected
compared to that of asymptomatic patients or with mild symptoms, who generate less antibodies, but more protective. However,
vaccination has involved an increase in their antibody levels in all the individuals in the study
, reaching very similar amounts among all of them.
"This is
one of the longest follow-ups carried out so far
in people who have passed the covid-19", explains Julià Blanco, IGTP researcher at IrsiCaixa.
"For just over a year we have analyzed the protective capacity of antibodies in a group of people with very heterogeneous symptoms and we have seen that
the severity of the disease is what determines the magnitude and effectiveness of the immune response
against SARS-CoV -2 ", he adds.
Different quantity and quality of antibodies
The study has been carried out in a total of
332 people who have suffered the Covid
, both asymptomatically and mildly (~ 60%) as well as severe (~ 40%), and they have been
monitored for the neutralizing immune response for 15 months
. In this way, research staff can confirm that, in most cases, antibody levels are maintained for more than a year and confer protection against the virus.
"What we have seen throughout this year is that,
in hospitalized patients, the amount of protective antibodies reaches its maximum level a few days after presenting the first symptoms
and then declines sharply, until they stabilize. remaining elevated over time ", comments Edwards Pradenas, predoctoral researcher at IrsiCaixa and co-author of the study together with Benjamin Trinité, postdoctoral researcher at IrsiCaixa.
"In the case of
people who have suffered a Covid asymptomatic or mild
,
the levels of protective antibodies
, although they are also sustained over time,
remain lower," he
adds. This behavior has been observed in infected people throughout different waves of the pandemic.
At the same time, the scientific staff has determined that, in the case of hospitalized patients, the quality of the antibodies is lower. In fact, the study shows that
the protective capacity of antibodies against the Beta variant, described for the first time in South Africa, is lost more markedly in hospitalized patients
than in people who have had Covid asymptomatically or mildly. Therefore, a severe infection seems to generate more antibodies, but of poorer quality.
"Having a good immune response is key, especially now with the appearance of new variants that can compromise the effectiveness of our defenses. Recent data suggest that,
in the absence of the vaccine, 50% of the study participants could suffer a reinfection by the Beta variant of the virus
, the most resistant to antibodies described so far, and this percentage would drop to 30% in the case of the original virus ", says Blanco.
The importance of vaccination
Thanks to the administration of the vaccine
,
the antibody levels of
the people participating in the study, of different magnitude depending on the symptoms,
have reached comparable values.
"Although not all the people we have followed have received the complete vaccine schedule, we can say that, in all of them, their immune response against the virus has been enhanced, demonstrating, once again, the clear benefits of vaccination ", celebrates Bonaventura Clotet, director of IrsiCaixa.
"However, we must continue to monitor the immunity of the population in the long term to be able to know how long it lasts and if it is still effective against the new variants. Only in this way can we design optimal prevention strategies to combat the current pandemic," he concludes .
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