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Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination

Previous clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that over time antibody titers decrease, and they do not provide long-term mucosa protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additionally, the increase in breakthrough infections that occur more frequently in the vaccinated than in the study par...

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Autores principales: Primorac, Dragan, Brlek, Petar, Matišić, Vid, Molnar, Vilim, Vrdoljak, Kristijan, Zadro, Renata, Parčina, Marijo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953558/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35335076
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10030442
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author Primorac, Dragan
Brlek, Petar
Matišić, Vid
Molnar, Vilim
Vrdoljak, Kristijan
Zadro, Renata
Parčina, Marijo
author_facet Primorac, Dragan
Brlek, Petar
Matišić, Vid
Molnar, Vilim
Vrdoljak, Kristijan
Zadro, Renata
Parčina, Marijo
author_sort Primorac, Dragan
collection PubMed
description Previous clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that over time antibody titers decrease, and they do not provide long-term mucosa protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additionally, the increase in breakthrough infections that occur more frequently in the vaccinated than in the study participants with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection has recently become a priority public health concern. We measured the amount of interferon-gamma (Quan-T-Cell ELISA) and the level of antibodies (Anti-SARS-CoV-2 QuantiVac ELISA IgG) in the blood of the same patients simultaneously to compare cellular and humoral immunity. A total of 200 study participants (before Omicron variant appearance) were divided into four groups whose levels of cellular and humoral immunity we compared: study participants previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 (group 1); study participants vaccinated with EMA-approved vaccines (group 2); study participants previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, and vaccination history (group 3); and study participants without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination (group 4). Our results showed that study participants who received one of the EMA-approved vaccines and who recovered from COVID-19 (group 3) had significantly higher levels of cellular immunity and antibody titers in comparison with groups 1 and 2. Additionally, we have noticed that the study participants previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the study participants vaccinated with EMA-approved vaccines had a long-lasting cellular immunity. Furthermore, antibody levels showed a negative correlation with time since the last contact with a viral antigen, while cellular immunity within 20 months showed as long-term protection. Moreover, out of 200 study participants, only 1 study participant who recovered from COVID-19 (0.5%) was re-infected, while a total of 6 study participants (3%) were infected with SARS-CoV-2 after receiving the vaccine. This study suggests that cellular immunity—unlike humoral immunity, thanks to memory T cells—represents long-term protection in individuals recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after vaccination.
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spelling pubmed-89535582022-03-26 Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination Primorac, Dragan Brlek, Petar Matišić, Vid Molnar, Vilim Vrdoljak, Kristijan Zadro, Renata Parčina, Marijo Vaccines (Basel) Article Previous clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that over time antibody titers decrease, and they do not provide long-term mucosa protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additionally, the increase in breakthrough infections that occur more frequently in the vaccinated than in the study participants with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection has recently become a priority public health concern. We measured the amount of interferon-gamma (Quan-T-Cell ELISA) and the level of antibodies (Anti-SARS-CoV-2 QuantiVac ELISA IgG) in the blood of the same patients simultaneously to compare cellular and humoral immunity. A total of 200 study participants (before Omicron variant appearance) were divided into four groups whose levels of cellular and humoral immunity we compared: study participants previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 (group 1); study participants vaccinated with EMA-approved vaccines (group 2); study participants previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, and vaccination history (group 3); and study participants without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination (group 4). Our results showed that study participants who received one of the EMA-approved vaccines and who recovered from COVID-19 (group 3) had significantly higher levels of cellular immunity and antibody titers in comparison with groups 1 and 2. Additionally, we have noticed that the study participants previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the study participants vaccinated with EMA-approved vaccines had a long-lasting cellular immunity. Furthermore, antibody levels showed a negative correlation with time since the last contact with a viral antigen, while cellular immunity within 20 months showed as long-term protection. Moreover, out of 200 study participants, only 1 study participant who recovered from COVID-19 (0.5%) was re-infected, while a total of 6 study participants (3%) were infected with SARS-CoV-2 after receiving the vaccine. This study suggests that cellular immunity—unlike humoral immunity, thanks to memory T cells—represents long-term protection in individuals recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after vaccination. MDPI 2022-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8953558/ /pubmed/35335076 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10030442 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Primorac, Dragan
Brlek, Petar
Matišić, Vid
Molnar, Vilim
Vrdoljak, Kristijan
Zadro, Renata
Parčina, Marijo
Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination
title Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination
title_full Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination
title_fullStr Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination
title_full_unstemmed Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination
title_short Cellular Immunity—The Key to Long-Term Protection in Individuals Recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and after Vaccination
title_sort cellular immunity—the key to long-term protection in individuals recovered from sars-cov-2 and after vaccination
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953558/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35335076
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10030442
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