The war between humanity and the coronavirus has started a long time ago, but unfortunately, we are far from finishing. A recently published research brings light to the way in which antibodies function, but the news are not good. Apparently, the patients infected with coronavirus will indeed get the antibodies that would help the immune system from letting the virus infect one’s body again. However, the antibodies may not last a lifetime, but only a few months.
Anyway, there is a bright side to the story, meaning that this discovery has nothing to do with the future invention of a vaccine. According to Dr. Buddy Creech, which is an infectious disease specialist working at the Vanderbilt University, when infected with coronavirus nobody can guarantee lifetime immunity. He was part of the recently published research, which was published on the 21st of July in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What are the antibodies?
Antibodies are proteins which are composed of white blood cells, or as they are called, the B cells, whose role is to terminate any virus that has infiltrated in a patient’s body. These proteins learn how to defend the human body by getting in contact with certain viruses, since viruses do not come with a pattern of attacking and neither can antibodies learn without facing the danger.
The results of the study?
The study was performed on 30 patients which were diagnosed with COVID-19 and four additional housemates which presented the symptoms. The average age of the patients was around 43 years old. According to their findings after 73 days the antibodies past half of their lifetime.
Fortunately, the researchers suggest that if the immune system has once learned how to combat COVID-19, it will learn a lot easier the second time when the infections appear. In addition to this, the upcoming vaccines will surely bring a longer life expectancy for the antibodies.
