COVID-19 Immunity Increases by Breakthrough Infections, Booster Doses

COVID-19 booster vaccinations and breakthrough infections after vaccination have provided significant and potentially pandemic-breaking immunity against COVID-19, according to recent laboratory research from Oregon Health & Science University. The research released in the journal Med is the most recent OHSU findings that describe the immunological response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus using blood samples.

“As the number of Omicron subvariant cases rise and as global vaccination and booster campaigns continue, an increasing proportion of the world’s population will acquire potent immune responses that may be protective against future SARS-CoV-2 variants,” the researchers conclude.

Immunological Responses Against COVID-19

99 OHSU employees who participated in the study had a strong immunological response. Patients after a third booster dose of the vaccine and those after a breakthrough infection post immunization both had equally robust immune responses to the virus. Additionally, the study discovered that individuals 65 years and older still had a strong immunological response.

“Early in the pandemic, we had very high mortality in certain vulnerable groups, such as older adults in nursing homes, but that reality is slowly changing,” said co-senior author Marcel Curlin, MD, associate professor of medicine (infectious diseases) in the OHSU School of Medicine and medical director of OHSU Occupational Health. “Our study bolsters the idea that vaccination is a pathway to a milder illness. Even if you are older, your chances of having a severe illness if you are re-infected down the line appear to be much lower than was at the start of the pandemic.”

Researchers predicted that recipients of the novel bivalent vaccine booster that targets the BA.4 and BA.5 variants would experience an even stronger immune response.

“We anticipate that updated vaccine strategies with variant-specific regimens will significantly improve the breadth of the immune response and provide better protections against the SARS-CoV-2 variants,” said Fikadu Tafesse, PhD, co-senior author and associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the OHSU School of Medicine.

Advertisement

COVID-19 Virus is Becoming Less Dangerous

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is no longer ‘new’ to the human immune system, unlike when the pandemic first started. Since the majority of individuals on earth are now immunized, infected, or both, the virus must contend with a considerably more potent immune response with each new infection.

According to Curlin, the current study most likely illustrates how the virus is changing to becoming more contagious but less dangerous.

Advertisement

“Evolutionary pressure is driving the virus to find more ways to infect people at the cost of pathogenicity, most likely,” he said. Pathogenicity refers to the capacity to cause symptoms associated with the disease.

Source-Medindia