A new study conducted by a team of researchers has found that the majority of coronavirus patients with mild to moderate symptoms will have antibodies in their bodies for at least 90 days. Researchers at Mount Sinai hospital made this conclusion after analyzing 19,860 COVID-19 patients.
More Details of the Study
During the study, researchers observed plasma from donors to determine how long the antibodies responded to the spike proteins in COVID-19. Earlier, researchers had found that spike protein in coronavirus is being used by the pathogen to bind itself to human cells. The research report revealed that a wild majority of patients who showed mild to moderate symptoms neutralized the spike proteins, which indicate the presence of antibodies in their body.
"We also show that titers are stable for at least a period approximating three months and that anti-spike binding titers significantly correlate with neutralization of authentic SARS-CoV-2. Our data suggest that more than 90 [percent] of seroconverters make detectible neutralizing antibody responses and that these titers are stable for at least the near-term future," wrote the researchers in the study report that is now available in the medRxiv Journal.
Researchers who took part in this study believe that this finding is quite crucial, as nearly half of the coronavirus patients are asymptomatic or having very mild symptoms.
Dilemma Continues over Coronavirus Vaccine
Recently, another study conducted by researchers at UCSF had found that permanent immunity to coronavirus may not be possible. The new finding literally jeopardized the vaccine development program, and scientists at UCSF started focussing exclusively on treatment. As permanent immunity is hard to achieve, researchers believe that finding a vaccine that might provide an overall cure for COVID-19 could be also very difficult.
"I just don't see a vaccine coming anytime soon. People do have antibodies, but the antibodies are waning quickly. If the antibodies diminish, then there is a good chance the immunity from a vaccine would wane too," Nevan Krogan, a molecular biologist and director of UCSF's Quantitative Biosciences Institute.
