ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Some more good COVID news -- a mild case of COVID-19 induces lasting antibody protection -- according to a new local study.
Washington University researchers found people who have had a mild illness developed so-called memory cells that exist in bone marrow that churn out antibodies that can last a lifetime.
"These cells that generated in those individuals are specific to the virus and they are long-lived cells," said Dr. Ali Ellebedy, the senior author of this study. "The good news is that we have a productive immune memory in those individuals."
So what does that mean?
"Those individuals have two different lines of defense," Dr. Ellebedy tells KMOX. "The first line is those antibodies that are being produced. And the second line of defense is that their memory cells are ready to engage."
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People who have had mild COVID-19 and are vaccinated are said to be “super protected.”
"These results help explain what we have seen in people that have been immunized or received the vaccine," said Dr. Ellebedey. "After one dose, if you have been infected before and recovered, you get a really massive immune response. That's because now we are not starting from scratch, but we are starting from the memory. And the memory response is almost always stronger because basically our system now recognizes that particular virus."
Which means, he says, even if you have recovered from COVID-19, you still should get vaccinated.
"It is very important still to get the vaccine so you can take full advantage of this memory that the infection has given to you," he says.
Dr. Ellebedey and colleagues now are studying whether vaccination also induces long-lived antibody-producing cells.
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