Coronavirus

Biology

Acquired immune system

Virology

Immunity

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Immunology

Immune system

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Internal medicine

Immunological memory

Medicine

Virus

Disease

Science

Variable memory Immune memory against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) helps to determine protection against reinfection, disease risk, and vaccine efficacy. Using 188 human cases across the range of severity of COVID-19, Dan et al. analyzed cross-sectional data describing the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 memory B cells, CD8 + T cells, and CD4 + T cells for more than 6 months after infection. The authors found a high degree of heterogeneity in the magnitude of adaptive immune responses that persisted into the immune memory phase to the virus. However, immune memory in three immunological compartments remained measurable in greater than 90% of subjects for more than 5 months after infection. Despite the heterogeneity of immune responses, these results show that durable immunity against secondary COVID-19 disease is a possibility for most individuals. Science , this issue p. eabf4063

Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection