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    Cohen, Kristen W.; Linderman, Susanne L.; Moodie, Zoe; Czartoski, Julie; Lai, Lilin; Mantus, Grace; Norwood, Carson; Nyhoff, Lindsay E.; Edara, Venkata Viswanadh; Floyd, Katharine; De Rosa, Stephen C.; Ahmed, Hasan; Whaley, Rachael; Patel, Shivan N.; Prigmore, Brittany; Lemos, Maria P.; Davis, Carl W.; Furth, Sarah; O’Keefe, James B.; Gharpure, Mohini P.; Gunisetty, Sivaram; Stephens, Kathy; Antia, Rustom; Zarnitsyna, Veronika I.; Stephens, David S.; Edupuganti, Srilatha; Rouphael, Nadine; Anderson, Evan J.; Mehta, Aneesh K.; Wrammert, Jens; Suthar, Mehul S.; Ahmed, Rafi; McElrath, M. Juliana

    Cell reports medicine, 07/2021, Volume: 2, Issue: 7
    Journal Article

    Ending the COVID-19 pandemic will require long-lived immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Here, we evaluate 254 COVID-19 patients longitudinally up to 8 months and find durable broad-based immune responses. SARS-CoV-2 spike binding and neutralizing antibodies exhibit a bi-phasic decay with an extended half-life of >200 days suggesting the generation of longer-lived plasma cells. SARS-CoV-2 infection also boosts antibody titers to SARS-CoV-1 and common betacoronaviruses. In addition, spike-specific IgG+ memory B cells persist, which bodes well for a rapid antibody response upon virus re-exposure or vaccination. Virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are polyfunctional and maintained with an estimated half-life of 200 days. Interestingly, CD4+ T cell responses equally target several SARS-CoV-2 proteins, whereas the CD8+ T cell responses preferentially target the nucleoprotein, highlighting the potential importance of including the nucleoprotein in future vaccines. Taken together, these results suggest that broad and effective immunity may persist long-term in recovered COVID-19 patients. Display omitted Most recovered COVID-19 patients mount broad, durable immunity after infectionNeutralizing antibodies show a bi-phasic decay with half-lives >200 daysSpike IgG+ memory B cells increase and persist post-infectionDurable polyfunctional CD4 and CD8 T cells recognize distinct viral epitope regions Cohen et al. evaluate immune responses longitudinally in 254 COVID-19 patients over 8 months. SARS-CoV-2-specific binding and neutralizing antibodies exhibit biphasic decay, suggesting long-lived plasma cell generation. Memory B cells remain stable; CD4 and CD8 memory T cells are polyfunctional. Thus, broad and effective immunity may persist long-term following COVID-19.