Researchers at the US National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have claimed that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, produces potent antibodies that last over three months.
NIAID researchers have made this claim after studying the immune response of 34 adults who had participated in the phase-I of clinical trials of Moderna’s vaccine. All participants were administered two shots of the vaccine 28 days apart. ------------------------------
According to the NIAID study, which was published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, the antibodies, which prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus from invading human cells, declined slightly over time, as expected, but they remained elevated in all participants 3 months after being vaccinated.
Although the antibodies diminish over time, it is not a cause of concern as the vaccine also activated a special type of immune cell that helped the immune system retain information of the SARS-COV-2 in the immunological memory, the study adds.
Director NIAID, Anthony Fauci, has said that chances are high that the Moderna’s vaccine will allow the immune system to remember the Coronavirus for a long time and will reproduce antibodies against it on exposure in the future.