immunity News and Research

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Does SARS-CoV-2 infection protect against reinfection?

A new review showed that the protective effect of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is at least equivalent to that of vaccination.

31 Aug 2021

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunity induced by Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may decline after 6 months

A team of scientists from Israel has recently claimed that antiviral immunity induced by the mRNA-based coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) BNT162b2 gradually declines over time, highlighting the need for a third booster dose.

31 Aug 2021

Post-infection vaccination produces potent neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants

The best protection against new SARS-CoV-2 infections or reinfections may be obtained by a combination of vaccine-elicited and infection-induced antibodies.

31 Aug 2021

Durability of cellular immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 after mRNA vaccination

A recent study, available on the bioRxiv* preprint server, investigated the durability of cellular immune memory after mRNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and whether booster jabs affect the durability of different immune response components. The study included testing for antibodies and cellular immune responses in covid patients and recovered individuals.

31 Aug 2021

How early interferon curbs SARS-CoV-2 infection

A new study available in the Journal of Experimental Medicine focuses on the importance of interferon in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

30 Aug 2021

Will mRNA vaccine boosters be required for SARS-CoV-2 variants?

A new study shows that the highly effective mRNA Moderna vaccine designed against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain may lose some efficacy as new variants arise.

30 Aug 2021

Sustained and effective response to Janssen COVID-19 vaccine Is enhanced by delayed booster

A new study adds to the data on the optimum interval between the first and second doses of the adenovirus vectored COVID-19 vaccine.

30 Aug 2021

Does SARS-CoV-2 natural infection immunity better protect against the Delta variant than vaccination?

A new study from Israel suggests immunity gained after recovering from a previous COVID-19 infection is more protective against the new Delta variant than vaccine-induced immunity. Natural immunity was estimated to be about 13 times stronger than having two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

30 Aug 2021

New study maps the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 delta and delta plus variants

The SARS-CoV-2 delta variant bears the D164G mutation, which is known to enhance viral fitness. However, a number of additional mutations are known to be common to the delta and delta plus lineages, at least 25 as identified in a study recently published in the Journal of Autoimmunity, mainly located on the spike protein of the virus.

30 Aug 2021

Researchers conduct an international study of vaccine hesitancy

The health beliefs model is one method of quantifying health behaviors. In a study recently published in the journal Vaccine, this method is utilized to specifically study COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, bearing in mind that hesitancy is highly variable not only between individuals and location but also in regards to the specific medicine in question.

30 Aug 2021

The impact of mild SARS-CoV-2 infection on maternal-fetal immunity

Recently, a new study published on the pre-print server bioRxiv* examined the effect that maternal asymptomatic COVID-19 had on decidual and peripheral immune cells during the later stage of pregnancy.

30 Aug 2021

Polymeric and lipid nanoparticles in self-amplifying RNA vaccines result in higher protein expression and immunogenicity

Self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) is an advanced platform for nucleic acid vaccine development. The backbone is typically derived from an alphaviral genome and encodes a gene of interest (GOI) and a viral replicase that can amplify the genomic and subgenomic RNA.

30 Aug 2021

Next-gen COVID vaccine to make persistent neutralizing antibodies

Presently, there is a need to develop improved versions of COVID-19 vaccines that are effective against the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) and can confer long-term protection. Considering the need of the hour, scientists from the University of Sydney in Australia have generated a new COVID-19 vaccine CoVac-II and evaluated its effect against COVID-19 strains. The findings from this study are published on the bioRxiv* preprint server while awaiting peer review.

30 Aug 2021

Modeling of COVID-19 seroprevalence and resurgence in Canada

Despite increased vaccine distribution and a significant decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases in Canada, the future of the pandemic is still a major concern, based on the possibility of a resurgence in the short term as well as long term and an understanding of the future of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) immunity. It is not clear if the Canadian population will reach herd immunity or if there is a risk of future resurgence of the virus in the Fall or Winter.

30 Aug 2021