May 12, 2024

Long COVID: Cedars-Sinai Researchers Find COVID-19 Vaccine Produces Antibodies Far Longer Than Expected

When an individual has an infection, the body immune system normally reacts by making antibodies that obstruct bacteria from entering cells. When it comes across a virus, vaccines imitate an infection so that the bodys immune system understands to launch specific antibodies. In both cases, the immune system eventually stops creating antibodies when the suspected infection is gone.
” Theres general agreement that some level of aberrant immune reaction occurs in long COVID-19, and this research study includes to the evidence to suggest this is true,” said Catherine Le, MD, co-director of the Cedars-Sinai COVID-19 Recovery Program and a senior author of the study.
Long COVID-19, a condition in which people experience COVID-19-related symptoms three months or more after initial infection with the virus that causes COVID-19, is approximated to impact 65 million individuals worldwide. Common symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction such as confusion and lapse of memory. Some signs can have incapacitating results.
To study the immune reaction of people with long COVID-19, investigators examined blood samples from 245 people detected with long COVID-19 and 86 individuals who had COVID-19 and completely recuperated. All the research study individuals had actually received either one or two dosages of a COVID-19 vaccine program.
” We examined one part of the immune system reaction, the production of antibodies, which is moderated by immune cells called B-cells,” Le discussed.
Particularly, the detectives looked at two types of antibodies that assault the infection that triggers COVID-19. One of these is called the spike protein antibody, which assaults a protein on the exterior of the infection. The other is the nucleocapsid antibody, which attacks the part of the infection that enables it to replicate.
The detectives found that individuals who were identified with long COVID-19 produced greater levels of spike protein and nucleocapsid antibodies than individuals without long COVID-19. Eight weeks after receiving a dosage of the COVID-19 vaccine, antibody levels in individuals without long COVID-19 began to decrease, as was expected. People with long COVID-19, however, continued to have raised antibody levels, particularly of nucleocapsid antibodies.
” What you would anticipate after getting a COVID-19 vaccination is a dive in your spike protein antibody levels, however you would not expect a substantial boost in nucleocapsid antibody levels,” said Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Womens Cardiovascular Health and Population Science, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute, and a senior author of the research study. “You would likewise anticipate these levels to ultimately reduce and not continue for so long after vaccination.”
Although this research study shows that long COVID-19 affects the body immune system, its prematurely to draw firm conclusions from these findings, according to the research studys authors.
” Theoretically, the production of these antibodies could mean that people are more safeguarded from infection,” Le stated. “We also require to investigate if the elevated immune response refers intensity or variety of long COVID-19 symptoms.”
Investigators are continuing to study blood samples from people with long COVID-19. They are hoping to recognize a quantifiable molecule that might be utilized to identify long COVID-19 and better understand the biological procedures that trigger it.
Recommendation: “Post-COVID-19 conditions modify an individuals immune action” by Sandy Joung, Brittany Weber, Min Wu, Yunxian Liu, Amber B. Tang, Matthew Driver, Sarah Sternbach, Timothy Wynter, Amy Hoang, Denisse Barajas, Yu Hung Kao, Briana Khuu, Michelle Bravo, Hibah Masoom, Teresa Tran, Nancy Sun, Patrick G. Botting, Brian L. Claggett, John C. Prostko, Edwin C. Frias, James L. Stewart, Jackie Robertson, Alan C. Kwan, Mariam Torossian, Isabel Pedraza, Carina Sterling, Caroline Goldzweig, Jillian Oft, Rachel Zabner, Justyna Fert-Bober, Joseph E. Ebinger, Kimia Sobhani, Susan Cheng and Catherine N. Le, 16 February 2023, BMC Infectious Diseases.DOI: 10.1186/ s12879-023-08060-y.
Other Cedars-Sinai detectives who dealt with the study include Sandy Joung; Min Wu; Yunxian Liu, PhD; Matthew Driver; Sarah Sternbach; Timothy Wynter; Amy Hoang; Denisse Barajas; Yu Hung Kao; Briana Khuu; Michelle Bravo; Hibah Masoom; Teresa Tran; Nancy Sun; Patrick G. Botting; Jackie Robertson; Alan C. Kwan, MD; Mariam Torossian, MD; Isabel Pedraza, MD; Carina Sterling, NP; Caroline Goldzweig, MD; Jillian Oft, MD; Rachel Zabner, MD; Justyna Fert-Bober, PhD; Joseph E. Ebinger, MD; and Kimia Sobhani, PhD.
Funding: The study was funded by Cedars-Sinai, the Erika J. Glazer Family Foundation, Sapient Bioanalytics, LLC, and the National Institutes of Health (award numbers K23-HL153888 and R01-HL131532).

A research study from Cedars-Sinais Smidt Heart Institute recommends that immune system dysfunction might be causing long COVID-19. The research study discovered that patients with long COVID-19 produced antibodies versus the infection for a prolonged period after vaccination, with especially high levels of nucleocapsid antibodies. The implications of this continual immune action are still unclear, and scientists are now seeking a definitive biomarker for diagnosing and comprehending long COVID-19.
Findings show people with long COVID-19 react differently to COVID-19 vaccines.
A brand-new research study by detectives from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai suggests long COVID-19 may be triggered by a dysfunction of the immune system.
The study, released in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, found that after individuals with long COVID-19 received the COVID-19 vaccine, they produced antibodies versus the infection that triggers COVID-19 for months longer than anticipated.

The study discovered that patients with long COVID-19 produced antibodies against the infection for a prolonged period after vaccination, with specifically high levels of nucleocapsid antibodies. Long COVID-19, a condition in which people experience COVID-19-related signs 3 months or more after initial infection with the infection that triggers COVID-19, is estimated to affect 65 million individuals worldwide. The investigators found that people who were diagnosed with long COVID-19 produced greater levels of spike protein and nucleocapsid antibodies than people without long COVID-19. Eight weeks after getting a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, antibody levels in people without long COVID-19 began to reduce, as was expected. People with long COVID-19, nevertheless, continued to have elevated antibody levels, particularly of nucleocapsid antibodies.