Mazzoni Alessio, Maggi Laura, Capone Manuela, Vanni Anna, Spinicci Michele, Salvati Lorenzo, Tekle Kiros Seble, Semeraro Roberto, Pengue Luca, Colao Maria Grazia, Magi Alberto, Rossolini Gian Maria, Liotta Francesco, Cosmi Lorenzo, Bartoloni Alessandro, Annunziato Francesco
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine University of Florence Florence Italy.
Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit Careggi University Hospital Florence Italy.
Clin Transl Immunology. 2021 May 6;10(5):e1281. doi: 10.1002/cti2.1281. eCollection 2021.
Although the adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 has been characterised in the acute and early convalescent phase of the disease, few studies explore whether natural infection elicits long-lasting immunological memory in recovered individuals. In this work, we aimed to assess the maintenance of immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2.
We evaluated the long-term virus-specific cellular and humoral immune response in the members of an Italian Serie A football team, who experienced a cluster of COVID-19 in March 2020, which was strictly evaluated in the following months.
Our results highlight a heterogeneous magnitude of immunological memory at 5 months after infection. Indeed, 20% of the subjects displayed a weak cellular and humoral memory to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that they may be at higher risk of reinfection. In addition, a history of symptomatic COVID-19 was associated with higher levels of SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4 T cells and specific antibody levels than in asymptomatic individuals.
Collectively, these data demonstrate that immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is maintained five months postinfection even if the magnitude of response is heterogeneous among individuals. This finding suggests that some COVID-19-recovered subjects may benefit from vaccination.
尽管对SARS-CoV-2的适应性免疫反应已在该疾病的急性期和早期恢复期得到了表征，但很少有研究探讨自然感染是否会在康复个体中引发持久的免疫记忆。在这项研究中，我们旨在评估对SARS-CoV-2免疫记忆的维持情况。
我们评估了一支意大利甲级足球队队员的长期病毒特异性细胞免疫和体液免疫反应，这些队员在2020年3月经历了一群人感染新冠病毒的情况，并在接下来的几个月里进行了严格评估。
我们的结果突出了感染后5个月免疫记忆的异质性。事实上，20%的受试者对SARS-CoV-2表现出较弱的细胞免疫和体液免疫记忆，这表明他们可能有更高的再次感染风险。此外，有症状的新冠病毒感染病史与无症状个体相比，SARS-CoV-2反应性CD4 T细胞水平和特异性抗体水平更高。
总体而言，这些数据表明，即使个体之间的反应程度存在异质性，感染SARS-CoV-2后的免疫力在感染后5个月仍得以维持。这一发现表明，一些新冠病毒康复者可能会从疫苗接种中受益。
