Abstract
A key unsolved question in the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the duration of acquired immunity. Insights from infections with the four seasonal human coronaviruses might reveal common characteristics applicable to all human coronaviruses. We monitored healthy individuals for more than 35 years and determined that reinfection with the same seasonal coronavirus occurred frequently at 12 months after infection.
Highlights
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus responsible for an ongoing pandemic
To prepare for future waves of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is important to elucidate the duration of protection to reinfection for which the seasonal coronaviruses might serve as an informative model
We hypothesize that characteristics shared by these four seasonal coronaviruses, such as the duration of protective immunity, are representative of all human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2
Summary
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus responsible for an ongoing pandemic. There are four species of seasonal coronaviruses—HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU1—that all can cause respiratory tract infections but are otherwise genetically and biologically dissimilar They belong to two distinct taxonomic genera and use different receptor molecules with varying host cell tropism[1]. Given this large variation, we hypothesize that characteristics shared by these four seasonal coronaviruses, such as the duration of protective immunity, are representative of all human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. A total of 101 events, ranging from 3 to 17 per individual, were classified as coronavirus infections (Table 1 and Fig. 1a).
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