I have a question, as a physician do you know about t-cell immunity? It is my understanding recovered SARS patients still have t-cell immunity 17 years later. I had COVID which I believe was not false positive (lost taste/smell). Shouldn't I have immunity for longer than 3-4 months, which is how long the antibodies are found in blood?
So it depends, sort of. T cell immunity is your bodys memory system. B cells make antibodies, t cells are cells that physically go kill or assist in killing infected cells. There is a whole lot to unpack here and would be a super long comment but I'll try to make a brief overview.
B cells work very fast to neutralize something you've been infected with before, so fast that you may not even know you were re-exppsed. Antibodies coat the thing (virus, bacteria etc) and then macrophages (immune cells) eat the thing and destroy it. Antibodies can also prevent the virus bacteria etc from getting into your system depending on the type (there's IgA, IgG, IgE etc) b cell immunity is quite effective and can last a long time after a robust response. B cells can make new antibodies very quickly and respond first to infections because they can quickly identify them, their ability to kill the thing is variable but decent.
T cells help by killing in a different way, by activating cells called natural killer cells and others. T cells are already formed when you're born, your thymus is where they originate and they go to lymph nodes. Theyre preset with what they respond to and your body will destroy the ones that react to the body (unless you have an autoimmune condition, then that never got done properly) .When you have a robust immune response to something, the T cell that is able to respond to the virus bacteria etc will replicate, this process takes time, and ultimately will save some of itself for later exposure. Infections don't always cause memory t cell formation but they do if you were pretty sick for the most part. Then if the same bug comes along again the memory t cell can quickly identify it and destroy it.
Tldr b cells make antibodies, good short term protection decent ability to kill infections , first on the scene. T cells take longer to activate and get there but once they do, they nuke the fucker. Then they store themselves incase it comes back
I have a question, as a physician do you know about t-cell immunity? It is my understanding recovered SARS patients still have t-cell immunity 17 years later. I had COVID which I believe was not false positive (lost taste/smell). Shouldn't I have immunity for longer than 3-4 months, which is how long the antibodies are found in blood?
So it depends, sort of. T cell immunity is your bodys memory system. B cells make antibodies, t cells are cells that physically go kill or assist in killing infected cells. There is a whole lot to unpack here and would be a super long comment but I'll try to make a brief overview.
B cells work very fast to neutralize something you've been infected with before, so fast that you may not even know you were re-exppsed. Antibodies coat the thing (virus, bacteria etc) and then macrophages (immune cells) eat the thing and destroy it. Antibodies can also prevent the virus bacteria etc from getting into your system depending on the type (there's IgA, IgG, IgE etc) b cell immunity is quite effective and can last a long time after a robust response. B cells can make new antibodies very quickly and respond first to infections because they can quickly identify them, their ability to kill the thing is variable but decent.
T cells help by killing in a different way, by activating cells called natural killer cells and others. T cells are already formed when you're born, your thymus is where they originate and they go to lymph nodes. Theyre preset with what they respond to and your body will destroy the ones that react to the body (unless you have an autoimmune condition, then that never got done properly) .When you have a robust immune response to something, the T cell that is able to respond to the virus bacteria etc will replicate, this process takes time, and ultimately will save some of itself for later exposure. Infections don't always cause memory t cell formation but they do if you were pretty sick for the most part. Then if the same bug comes along again the memory t cell can quickly identify it and destroy it.
Tldr b cells make antibodies, good short term protection decent ability to kill infections , first on the scene. T cells take longer to activate and get there but once they do, they nuke the fucker. Then they store themselves incase it comes back