Study suggests people who have had COVID-19 benefit from vaccination, even if they've delayed it.
Immunity from COVID-19 appears to gather strength with more time between vaccination and infection, a new laboratory study from researchers at Oregon Health & Science University suggests. The findings carry implications for vaccine recommendations as the pandemic transitions to an endemic state.
Researchers measured the antibody response in blood samples for a group of people who gained so-called "hybrid immunity" through two means: either vaccination followed by a breakthrough infection, or by getting vaccinated after contracting COVID-19. They measured the immune response in blood samples of 96 generally healthy OHSU employees and found that the immune response was uniformly stronger the longer the time period between vaccination and infection. The longest interval measured was 404 days.
"Longer intervals between natural infection and vaccination appear to strengthen immune response for otherwise healthy people," said co-senior author Fikadu Tafesse, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology in the OHSU School of Medicine.
The study came just before an advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met on Thursday, January 26, to consider the nation's COVID-19 vaccine strategy going forward.
Published in the Journal for Clinical Investigation Insight, the new research is the latest in a series of laboratory discoveries by OHSU scientists revealing a pattern of strengthened immune response through hybrid immunity. Their findings suggest that the magnitude, potency, and breadth of hybrid immune response all increased with a longer time period between exposure to the virus — whether through vaccination or natural infection.
This likely is related to the body's immune response maturing over time, said co-senior author Marcel Curlin, M.D., associate professor of medicine (infectious diseases) in the OHSU School of Medicine and medical director of OHSU Occupational Health.
"The immune system is learning," Curlin said. "If you're going to amplify a response, what this study tells us is that you might want to boost that response after a longer period of learning rather than early after exposure."
Further, the research team found that it didn't matter whether someone developed hybrid immunity by getting vaccinated after contracting COVID-19 or after a breakthrough infection following vaccination. Both groups developed an equally potent immune response.
The findings suggest long-lasting potency of so-called "memory cells," the B cells that recognize an invading virus and generate protein antibodies to neutralize the virus and its many variants. The authors write that an ever-growing pool of people who have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus stand to benefit from vaccination, even if they've delayed it until now.
Relying on natural infection alone is a bad idea, "given the risks of severe illness, long-term complications, and death," the authors write.
The researchers say the findings are the latest to point toward the virus evolving to an endemic state.
"Our results point to a future where inevitable vaccine breakthrough infections would be expected to help build a reservoir of population-level immunity that can help blunt future waves and reduce the opportunity for further viral evolution," they write.
The researchers cautioned that the immune response was measured in relatively healthy people, and boosters may be advisable on a more frequent basis among vulnerable people who are older or are immunocompromised.
News
GHCE Concept
From the preface of the book Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artificial Intelligence, Edited by Frank Boehm: Since the publication of my first book (Nanomedical Device and Systems [...]
Human Bodies Are Producing Two Billion Tons of CO2 a Year
A new study reveals that the amount of carbon dioxide produced by human metabolism has increased dramatically over three decades. The carbon dioxide produced by human bodies as they convert food into energy increased [...]
A Hidden DNA Mechanism Could Explain How 20% of Human Cancers Develop
Researchers have identified an unexpected molecular vulnerability in cancers carrying BAF mutations. Mutations found in roughly 20% of human cancers may promote tumor growth by changing how DNA is organized inside cells. Researchers have [...]
Ebola kills over 5,300 in fastest-growing outbreak on record
Africa’s latest Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 5,400 people, the vast majority of them in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the continent’s top health agency. Africa Centres for Disease Control and [...]
China makes early progress in using sound waves to stimulate damaged brains
Chinese researchers are testing whether focused ultrasound can help restore consciousness in patients with severe brain injuries, adding to a growing international effort to use sound waves to stimulate deep brain structures without surgery. [...]
Micro-drones fly through the body thanks to ultrasound
At the EPFL, micro-drones have been developed that can be moved without a motor or battery.No motors, no batteries, no electronics on board, just small cavities that convert sound waves into thrust: this is [...]
A Single Enzyme Could Hold the Key to Treating a Devastating Brain Disorder
Blocking an enzyme’s production restored brain growth and healthy behaviors in mice engineered to develop Angelman syndrome, pointing to a possible treatment target. Children with Angelman syndrome begin to show difficulties with thinking and [...]
Scientists Develop a Clever New Way To Kill Cancer Cells From the Inside
Scientists have developed an experimental strategy that exploits a chemical byproduct of cancer cells to produce anticancer drugs directly inside them. Scientists in Japan have developed an experimental method that uses a chemical produced [...]
Our books are available worldwide!
Online Sellers other than Amazon, Routledge, and IOPP Indigo Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artifcial Intelligence Global Health Care Equivalency In The Age Of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine And Artificial [...]
After only a short training, people in a coma managed to send targeted signals
Researchers have succeeded in communicating with brain-injured patients who are unconscious. They see enormous potential in this for future treatments. Patients who lie motionless in bed after a severe brain injury and do not [...]
MIT Scientists Reprogram Immune Cells Inside the Body To Destroy Cancer
Natural killer cells reprogrammed inside mice eliminated lymphoma tumors and helped damaged livers heal, though whether this approach could help people with cancer or autoimmune disease remains unknown. To make a cancer treatment from [...]
Melanoma mRNA Vaccine Shows Promise in Preventing Disease Recurrence
Key takeaways: Phase 3 trial finds personalized intismeran plus pembrolizumab may better prevent high-risk melanoma recurrence after surgery The trial enrolled 1,137 patients and builds on phase 2 results showing about half the recurrence [...]
Scientists Discover a Powerful New Weapon Against a Dangerous Gut Infection
The promise of an experimental treatment for C. difficile gut infections lies partly in the bacteria it leaves alive, according to early laboratory and mouse research. Broad-spectrum antibiotics can disrupt the gut’s microbial community, [...]
Your Bones May Hold a Hidden Clue to Blood Cancer Survival
For people with blood cancers called myelodysplastic syndromes, osteoporosis may hold an overlooked clue to survival, a three-year observational study suggests. In blood cancers that develop in the bone marrow, an important clue to [...]
Researchers Discover What Reading for Pleasure May Be Doing to Your Brain
Reading for pleasure may offer surprising benefits for the brain, with research linking the habit to better mental health, stronger cognitive abilities, and a lower risk of dementia. Reading for pleasure may do far [...]
Scientists Discover a Hidden Trigger That Keeps Inflammation Alive
Inflammation persists after proteins detach from immune receptors, revealing a potential target for autoimmune treatments. Since a Nobel Prize-winning discovery in the 1990s identified molecules called Toll-like Receptors as the guardians of the human [...]
