A new study suggests that catching COVID-19 after vaccination may make it better able to fight off new variants.
There is no data on the other vaccine brands in the new research because all of the participants had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The study suggests that people who catch COVID-19 after beingvaccinated may have an advantage over others if they become exposed to a new coronaviruses variant.
The study shows a potential silver lining to catching a breakthrough infection, but it still carries risks. For instance, a breakthrough infections can lead to long COVID, a syndrome where people experience various symptoms for many months after their initial infections are over.
There are facts about omicron, delta and other COVID-19 Mutants.
Curlin and his colleagues collected blood samples from 26 OHSU health care workers, all of whom had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, meaning they had caught COVID-19. The team reported that none of the participants had had infections prior to their breakthrough infections. The researchers found that 10 of the 19 infections were caused by the delta variant and nine were non-delta infections.
The team compared the blood from these breakthrough cases to that from 26 OHSU health care workers who were also fully vaccined but hadn't caught a breakthrough infection.
The team isolated a clear, yellowish fluid from the blood samples and placed it in a lab dish with human cells and the virus that causes COVID-19. They used an assessment called a "focus reduction neutralization test" to figure out how effective the antibodies within the serum were. The bug can no longer cause harm when it's neutralizing by the antibodies.
The team ran experiments with the original strain of the disease. They did not conduct any experiments with the omicron variant. The results of these experiments show that the serum from those with breakthrough infections is more effective than the control group's.
If I take a person who's just vaccine alone, and someone who's had vaccine plus breakthrough, and I take their serum, I stack that up against the alpha variant, or the delta variant, and the person with the vaccine has much better ability.
The blood of those with breakthrough infections bore more antibodies that bind to the spike protein of the virus, compared with the blood of controls. Live Science reported that the most critical for neutralizing the coronaviruses are theRBD-specific antibodies.
The team reported that the breakthrough group's serum was 950% more potent than the controls'. The breakthrough group's serum was more potent against the variant of concern than the control group's.
The variant from the delta breakthrough had higher potency than the non-delta breakthrough. Boosters that match different versions could help the immune response, according to the team.
Curlin told KATU News that vaccination alone is protective, even if the combination of vaccination and a breakthrough infection causes a more potent immune response. He said that they were looking at the combination of vaccine and infections. The immune response is variable from person to person and, on average, quite a bit lower than if you're vaccine-free.
The study was published in the journal JAMA.
Live Science published the original article.
