Vaccine-induced T cells provide long-lasting immune response to COVID-19: study

The human body’s T cells provide long-lasting memory against the virus following vaccination or infection from COVID-19, a study led by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) has shown. Published in Nature Immunology, the study utilised new technology to track the T cell responses of people who had recovered from COVID-19 for 15 months and found there was a sustained level of these cells capable of recognising the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Senior author and senior research fellow at the Doherty Institute Dr Jennifer Juno said despite an initial contraction of the immune response immediately following infection, the T cells stabilised at six months and remained level after 15 months of monitoring. “Even though some parts of the immune response wane, we can now see that T cells recognising the virus are quite stable over time. After more than a year, they were still roughly 10-fold higher than someone who...