Covid-19: “immune memory”, the main weapon against the virus?
This microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 emerging on the surface of cells in yellow in an isolated sample from a patient with Covid-19.
NIAID-RML via AP
Text by: Cédric de Oliveira
3 min
According to an American study, the human body would be able to develop an immunity against SARS-CoV-2 greater than six months after infection thanks to memory cells.
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This is good news in the fight against the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
And it comes from work published Monday, January 18 in
the scientific journal
Nature
.
Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York have shown that the immune system produces "memory cells" that keep track of the attack for at least six months after infection.
“
These cells have a very broad recognition spectrum.
If they encounter the virus, they will then be able to provide more effective protection in the event of a new infection
”,
explains immunologist Claude-Agnès Reynaud, a researcher at Inserm and who collaborated with the authors of the study in question.
They will then trigger the production of antibodies in the event of a new attack of the virus.
“
These cells are the ideal response given the nature of SARS-CoV-2, the symptoms of which appear after several days.
They will have time to activate during reinfection.
"
At the beginning of January, another American study published in
the journal
Science
reached the same conclusions concerning “memory cells”.
But according to her, immunity would persist for more than eight months after the onset of symptoms of Covid-19.
Memory cells effective against variants
The study carried out on a sample of 87 people showed that the antibodies produced by the “memory cells” were more efficient and also more versatile, capable of protecting variants which appeared in the United Kingdom, Brazil or South Africa.
According to Claude-Agnès Reynaud, “
once infected, the immune system anticipates these variants around the viral structure.
This allows a broader protection than the nature of the virus encountered.
Someone who was confronted with the virus by the previous strain is able to fight these variants thanks to memory cells.
"
Extremely reassuring conclusions even if the immunologist specifies that this protection concerns only "
the variants identified to date
".
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