@article{a796ee8e71b84c33b5097e77b6e99f7f,
title = "SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans",
abstract = "Long-lived bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) are a persistent and essential source of protective antibodies1–7. Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 have a substantially lower risk of reinfection with SARS-CoV-28–10. Nonetheless, it has been reported that levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 serum antibodies decrease rapidly in the first few months after infection, raising concerns that long-lived BMPCs may not be generated and humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 may be short-lived11–13. Here we show that in convalescent individuals who had experienced mild SARS-CoV-2 infections (n = 77), levels of serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S) antibodies declined rapidly in the first 4 months after infection and then more gradually over the following 7 months, remaining detectable at least 11 months after infection. Anti-S antibody titres correlated with the frequency of S-specific plasma cells in bone marrow aspirates from 18 individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 at 7 to 8 months after infection. S-specific BMPCs were not detected in aspirates from 11 healthy individuals with no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We show that S-binding BMPCs are quiescent, which suggests that they are part of a stable compartment. Consistently, circulating resting memory B cells directed against SARS-CoV-2 S were detected in the convalescent individuals. Overall, our results indicate that mild infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune memory in humans.",
author = "Turner, {Jackson S.} and Wooseob Kim and Elizaveta Kalaidina and Goss, {Charles W.} and Rauseo, {Adriana M.} and Schmitz, {Aaron J.} and Lena Hansen and Alem Haile and Klebert, {Michael K.} and Iskra Pusic and O{\textquoteright}Halloran, {Jane A.} and Presti, {Rachel M.} and Ellebedy, {Ali H.}",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements We thank the donors for providing specimens; T. Lei for assistance with preparing specimens; and L. Kessels, A. J. Winingham, the staff of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit at Washington University School of Medicine and the nursing team of the bone marrow biopsy suite at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Jewish Hospital for sample collection and providing care for donors. The SARS-CoV-2 S and RBD protein expression plasmids were provided by F. Krammer. The Ellebedy laboratory was supported by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grants U01AI141990 and 1U01AI150747, NIAID Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance contracts HHSN272201400006C and HHSN272201400008C and NIAID Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers contract 75N93019C00051. J.S.T. was supported by NIAID 5T32CA009547. L.H. was supported by Norwegian Research Council grant 271160 and National Graduate School in Infection Biology and Antimicrobials grant 249062. This study used samples obtained from the Washington University School of Medicine{\textquoteright}s COVID-19 biorepository, which is supported by the NIH–National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences grant UL1 TR002345. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the view of the NIH. The WU353, WU367 and WU368 studies were reviewed and approved by the Washington University Institutional Review Board (approval nos. 202003186, 202009100 and 202012081, respectively). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.",
year = "2021",
month = jul,
day = "15",
doi = "10.1038/s41586-021-03647-4",
language = "English",
volume = "595",
pages = "421--425",
journal = "Nature",
issn = "0028-0836",
number = "7867",
}