THE following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.
Antibodies in kids after COVID last 6 months or more
Most children and adolescents with COVID-19 antibodies after SARS-CoV-2 infection usually still have the antibodies in their blood more than half a year later, new data shows.
Starting in October 2020, researchers in Texas recruited 218 subjects between the ages of 5 and 19. Each provided three blood samples, at three-month intervals. More than 90% were unvaccinated when they enrolled in the study. The first blood test showed infection-related antibodies indicating recovery from COVID-19 in one-third of the children, the researchers reported online Friday in Pediatrics. Six months later, 96% of those with the antibodies still had them. The study was designed to detect the presence of antibodies, which are only one component of the immune system’s defenses, not the amount of antibodies. The level of protection even in those with antibodies is unclear. Researchers found no differences based on whether a child was asymptomatic, severity of symptoms, when they had the virus or due to weight or gender.
“It was the same for everyone,” Sarah Messiah of UTHealth School of Public Health Dallas, said in a statement. “Some parents… think just because their child has had COVID-19, they are now protected and don’t need to get the vaccine,” Messiah said. “We have a great tool available to give children additional protection by getting their vaccine.”
A small study published earlier this month in JAMA Network Open suggested that most children infected with the coronavirus do not have antibodies in their blood afterward. Only 37% of children appeared to develop antibodies, compared to 76% of adults, even though viral loads were similar in the two groups, those researchers found.
Experimental SK vaccine shows promise against Omicron
A booster shot of an experimental vaccine being developed by SK Bioscience Co has shown “durable protection” against the Omicron variant in Rhesus macaques, according to new data.
The monkeys had received two initial doses of the vaccine plus a booster 6 or 12 months later. Blood samples from the boosted primates showed “remarkably high” levels of antibodies that could neutralize both the original strain of the virus and the Omicron variant that caused infections to soar, the researchers reported on Sunday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review. The animals’ second-line immune defenses were also “substantial and persistent,” they said. The vaccine, called GBP510, triggers responses from the immune system by delivering copies of a key part of the spike protein from the surface of the coronavirus. The protein “subunits” are studded onto nanoparticles to resemble the virus itself. These components are supplemented with an adjuvant from GSK that boosts the immune system’s responses, explained Bali Pulendran of Stanford University in California.
