Seasonal coronavirus protective immunity is short-lasting

Abstract

A key unsolved question in the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the duration of acquired immunity. Insights from infections with the four seasonal human coronaviruses might reveal common characteristics applicable to all human coronaviruses. We monitored healthy individuals for more than 35 years and determined that reinfection with the same seasonal coronavirus occurred frequently at 12 months after infection. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus responsible for an ongoing pandemic. To date, there is limited evidence of reinfection by SARS-CoV-2, although it is generally assumed that reinfections by coronaviruses occur. To prepare for future waves of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is important to elucidate the duration of protection to reinfection for which the seasonal coronaviruses might serve as an informative model. There are four species of seasonal coronaviruses-HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU1-that all can cause respiratory tract infections but

Longitudinal observation and decline of neutralizing antibody responses in the three months following SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans

“…In a second study, low neutralizing antibody titres (mean 1:28) were still detected up to 36 months post-infection in 89% of individuals 19 . The lower neutralizing antibody responses in the 0-3 disease severity cases in our two cohorts may reflect more the immune response to endemic seasonal coronaviruses (that is, those associated with the common cold), which has also been reported to be more transient and where reinfections do occur 2,18 . For example, individuals experimentally infected with endemic α-coronavirus 229E, generated high antibody titres after 2 weeks, which rapidly declined in the following 11 weeks and, by 1 year, the mean antibody titres had reduced further 14 .…”

“…Antibody responses to other human coronaviruses have been reported to wane over time [14][15][16][17] . In particular, antibody responses targeting endemic human αand β-coronaviruses can last for as little as 12 weeks 18 , whereas antibodies to SARS-CoV and MERS can…”

How could we forget immunometabolism in SARS-CoV2 infection or COVID-19?

“…However, mild-COVID-19 patients have ZNF683hi CD8 þ T rms (resident memory T) in the lungs, which may be generated due to the previous recent common cold infection caused by other bCoVs and exert potent antiviral direct cytotoxic action [29,30]. However, the Abs generated in response to other bCoVs (HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, and HCoV-OC43) causing seasonal coronavirus infections are broadly neutralizing Abs but are of short life as people previously infected also get infection in less than 12 months period [31]. People getting reinfection within less than six month of previous infection even do not show a decrease in their Ab titer between the infection, but it decreases after 6 months of first infection [31].…”

Why decoding the immune response to COVID matters for vaccines

“…People who recover from other types of coronavirus infection can be reinfected, because the antibody responses in those cases are relatively short-lived 7 . In the case of COVID-19, it is not yet known how long any potential protection might last; how common reinfection is; or to what extent reinfected individuals are going undetected.…”