Coronavirus: Large antibody study offers hope for COVID-19 vaccine efforts
Antibodies that people make to fight the new coronavirus last for at least four months after diagnosis and do not fade quickly, as some earlier reports suggested, scientists have found.
Tuesday’s report, from tests on more than 30,000 people in Iceland, is the most extensive work yet on the immune system’s response to the virus and is good news for efforts to develop vaccines.
Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.
If a vaccine can spur production of long-lasting antibodies like natural infection does, it gives hope that “immunity to this unpredictable and highly contagious virus may not be fleeting,” independent experts from Harvard University and the US National Institutes of Health wrote in a commentary published with the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
One of the big mysteries of the pandemic is whether having had the coronavirus helps protect against future infection and for how long.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Some smaller studies previously suggested that antibodies disappear quickly and that some people with few or no symptoms may not make many at all.
The new study was done by Reykjavik-based deCODE Genetics, a subsidiary of the US biotech company Amgen, with several hospitals, universities and health officials in Iceland.
Read more:
Coronavirus: Scientists see downsides to top COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, China
US Defense Department to probe patents of coronavirus vaccine maker Moderna: Reports
-
Coronavirus: Llama antibodies could be key to COVID-19 immune therapy, study says
Llamas could be the key to a new treatment for patients who are severely ill with the coronavirus, new research suggests.Scientists are experimenting ... Coronavirus -
Herd immunity crisis: Coronavirus asymptomatic carriers don’t have lasting antibodies
Hope for COVID-19 herd immunity has come under threat as a new study released suggests that those that test positive for coronavirus but never develop ... Coronavirus -
Coronavirus: AstraZeneca expands COVID-19 vaccine agreement with Oxford Biomedica
AstraZeneca has expanded its agreement with Oxford Biomedica to make and supply the drugmaker's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in a deal that will pay ... Coronavirus