Study in Primates Finds Acquired Immunity Prevents COVID-19 Reinfections

Posted on July 14th, 2020 by Dr. Francis Collins

There have been rare reports of people recovering from infection with SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, only to test positive a second time. Such results might be explained by reports that the virus can linger in our systems. Yet some important questions remain: Is it possible that people could beat this virus only to get reinfected a short time later? How long does immunity last after infection? And what can we expect about the duration of protection from a vaccine?

A recent study of rhesus macaques, which are among our close primate relatives, offers relevant insights into the first question. In a paper published in the journal Science, researchers found that after macaques recover from mild SARS-CoV-2 infection, they are protected from reinfection—at least for a while.

In work conducted in the lab of Chuan Qin, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China, six macaques were exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Following infection, the animals developed mild-to-moderate illness, including pneumonia and evidence of active infection in their respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. Twenty-eight days later, when the macaques had cleared the infection and started recovering, four animals were re-exposed to the same strain of SARS-CoV-2. The other two served as controls, with researchers monitoring their continued recovery.

Qin’s team noted that after the second SARS-CoV-2 exposure, the four macaques developed a transient fever that had not been seen after their first infection. No other signs of reinfection were observed or detected in chest X-rays, and the animals tested negative for active virus over a two-week period.

While more study is needed to understand details of the immune responses, researchers did detect a reassuring appearance of antibodies specific to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the macaques over the course of the first infection. The spike protein is what the virus uses to attach to macaque and human cells before infecting them.

Of interest, levels of those neutralizing antibodies were even higher two weeks after the second viral challenge than they were two weeks after the initial exposure. However, researchers note that it remains unclear which factors specifically were responsible for the observed protection against reinfection, and apparently the first exposure was sufficient.

Since the second viral challenge took place just 28 days after the first infection, this study provides a rather limited window into broad landscape of SARS-CoV-2 infection and recovery. Consequently, it will be important to determine to what extent a first infection might afford protection over the course of months and even years. Also, because the macaques in this study developed only mild-to-moderate COVID-19, more research is needed to investigate what happens after recovery from more severe COVID-19.

Of course, macaques are not humans. Nevertheless, the findings lend hope that COVID-19 patients who develop acquired immunity may be at low risk for reinfection, at least in the short term. Additional studies are underway to track people who came down with COVID-19 in New York during March and April to see if any experience reinfection. By the end of this year, we should have better answers.

Reference:

[1] Primary exposure to SARS-CoV-2 protects against reinfection in rhesus macaques. Deng W, Bao L, Liu J, et al. Science. 2020 Jul 2. [Published online ahead of print].

Links:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) (NIH)

Qin Lab (Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China)