Skip to Content
800-533-8762
  • Careers
  • Newsroom
  • Health Care Professionals
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
UPMC
  • Find a Doctor
  • Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
      Allergy & Immunology Behavioral & Mental Health Cancer Ear, Nose & Throat Endocrinology Gastroenterology Heart & Vascular Imaging Neurosciences Orthopaedics
      Physical Rehabilitation Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Primary Care Senior Services Sports Medicine Telemedicine Transplant Surgery Walk-In Care Weight Management Women’s Health
      See all Services
    • Services by Region
    • Find a UPMC health care facility close to you quickly by browsing by region.
      UPMC in Western Pa. Western Pa. and New York
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Services
  • Locations
    • Locations by Type
    • Locations by Type
      UPMC hospitals
      Hospitals
      Physical Therapy
      Physical Therapy
      Urgent care
      Walk-In Care
      UPMC Outpatient Centers
      Outpatient Centers
      UPMC Imaging Services
      Imaging
      Community Health Centers
      Community Health Centers
      See All Locations
    • Locations by Region
    • Locations by Region
      UPMC in Southwest Pa. Southwest Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Northwest Pa and Ny. Northwest Pa. & Western N.Y.
      UPMC in West Central Pa. West Central Pa.
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Locations
  • Patients & Visitors
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
      Patients and Visitors Resources Pay a Bill Classes & Events Medical Records Health Library Patient Information
      Patient Portals Privacy Information Shared Decision Making Traveling Patients Visitor Information
      Man uses mobile phone
      Pay a Bill
      Nurse reviews medical chart
      Request Medical Records
  • Patient Portals
  • Find Covid-19 updates
  • Schedule an appointment
  • Request medical records
  • Pay a bill
  • Learn about financial assistance
  • Find classes & events
  • Send a patient an eCard
  • Make a donation
  • Volunteer
  • Read HealthBeat blog
  • Explore UPMC Careers
Skip to Content
UPMC
  • Patient Portals
  • For Patients & Visitors
    • Find a Doctor
    • Locations
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Pay a Bill
    • Services
    • More
      • Medical Records
      • Financial Assistance
      • Classes & Events
      • HealthBeat Blog
      • Health Library
  • About UPMC
    • Why UPMC
    • Facts & Stats
    • Supply Chain Management
    • Community Commitment
    • More
      • Financials
      • Support UPMC
      • UPMC Apps
      • UPMC Enterprises
      • UPMC International
  • For Health Care Professionals
    • Physician Information
    • Resources
    • Education & Training
    • Departments
    • Credentialing
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Newsroom
  • UPMC >
  • Media Relations >
  • News Releases >
  • 110921 Young Adults Low Antibody Levels After COVID19
Media Relations
News Releases
Central Pa. News
North Central Pa. News
Contact Us
Experts
Community-Focused News
Media Kits
Media RSS
Media Relations
News Releases
Central Pa. News
North Central Pa. News
Contact Us
Experts
Community-Focused News
Media Kits
Media RSS

Chat Keywords List

  • cancel or exit: Stops your conversation
  • start over: Restarts your current scenario
  • help: Shows what this bot can do
  • terms: Shows terms of use and privacy statement
  • feedback: Give us feedback
Continue
Chat with UPMC
RESTART
MENU
CLOSE

Young Adults Have Lowest Antibody Levels After COVID-19 Infection, Suggesting Vaccination Still Key

For Journalists

Asher Jones
Manager, Science Writing
412-647-3555
jonesag@upmc.edu

Andrea Yorchuck (Kunicky)
Senior Manager
412-552-7448
KunickyA@upmc.edu

Want to Make an Appointment or Need Patient Information?
Contact UPMC at

1-800-533-8762.

Go to Find a Doctor to search for a UPMC doctor.

2021 CHP PITT HS

11/9/2021

PITTSBURGH– An analysis of adults who recovered from moderate COVID-19 found that those under the age of 30 had lower neutralizing antibody levels than older people, suggesting that younger individuals may be less protected from a second infection.

The findings, posted to the preprint website medRxiv and announced today, ahead of peer-reviewed publication, indicate that vaccination is important even for young adults who have previously been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“I know a lot of people think, ‘I had COVID, so I don’t need to get a shot,’” said senior author John Alcorn, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. “But this study suggests that some patients, particularly young people, don’t have particularly good antibody memory after infection, indicating that immune boosting with vaccination is important for these people.”John Alcorn

During an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the immune system produces virus-specific antibodies and memory B cells, which stick around in the bloodstream and can help fend off a second infection from the same pathogen. But over time, that protection can wane. Researchers are still trying to understand just how durable this antibody response is after recovery from COVID-19 and whether some groups of people have longer-lasting immune memory than others. 

Most studies on antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection have focused on patients who recovered from severe forms of COVID-19, motivating the researchers to investigate milder forms of the disease.

Alcorn and his team recruited 173 patients aged 19 to 79 with mild or moderate COVID-19 who visited their doctors for treatment, excluding those who were hospitalized, indicating severe disease. The researchers collected blood samples from participants several weeks after recovery, and measured SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. They also showed that the antibodies were able to inactivate, or neutralize, the virus in a lab dish and that higher antibody levels were linked with higher neutralizing activity. 

Comparing patients, the researchers found that some people had high antibody levels while others had much lower responses, and these differences weren’t explained by time since infection. But when the researchers broke the participants into different age groups, they found something surprising: Patients under the age of 30 produced lower antibody levels compared with all other age groups. 

“Some people, particularly young people, don’t respond particularly well in terms of immune memory to prior infection. These people may not be well protected from a second infection,” explained Alcorn. “But we now have a tool — vaccines — that can reinduce immune responses and boost protection. This study puts more evidence behind the recommendation that people who had COVID-19 should get vaccinated.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released new data showing that unvaccinated people who had a recent infection were five times more likely to get COVID-19 than vaccinated people, indicating that vaccines provide better protection than prior infection and highlighting the importance of the shot even for those who have recovered from the disease.
It’s not clear why young people had the poorest immune responses, Alcorn said. Other studies have shown that COVID-19 disease severity is linked with higher antibody levels, so the researchers suspected that low antibody responses in patients under 30 could be because these patients weren’t as sick as their older peers. 

To examine this hypothesis, the team analyzed patient medical records. Using the number of days of symptoms as a proxy for disease severity, they found that people aged under 45 were less sick than older patients.

“But people aged under 30 and those aged 31 to 45 had the same symptom duration, but their antibody levels were significantly different,” said Alcorn. “These findings suggest that disease severity could influence a person’s level of protection, but it doesn’t explain everything.”

Alcorn and his team plan to follow up with the same patients to measure how neutralizing antibody levels change over longer periods of time. Because some of these patients have now received a COVID-19 vaccine, the researchers will also compare antibody levels in those who have or haven’t been immunized.

Additional authors on the study were Bo Zhai, Ph.D., Saran Kupul, M.S., and Lucas J. Schratz, M.S., all of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh; Karen Clarke, M. Patricia Nowalk, Ph.D., and Richard K. Zimmerman, M.D., all of Pitt; David L. Bauer, Ph.D., and James B. McLachlan, Ph.D., both of Tulane University School of Medicine; and Anita K. McElroy, M.D., Ph.D., UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Pitt.

This research was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (5U01IP001035), the National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001857 and U01 AI124289), the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Human Services COVID Grant, the DSF Charitable Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute. 


PHOTO INFO: 

CAPTION: John Alcorn, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

CREDIT: Courtesy of John Alcorn

CLICK IMAGE FOR HIGH RES VERSION

 

UPMC
200 Lothrop Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213

412-647-8762 800-533-8762

Patients And Visitors
  • Find a Doctor
  • Locations
  • Pay a Bill
  • Patient & Visitor Resources
  • Disabilities Resource Center
  • Services
  • Medical Records
  • No Surprises Act
  • Price Transparency
  • Financial Assistance
  • Classes & Events
  • Health Library
Health Care Professionals
  • Physician Information
  • Resources
  • Education & Training
  • Departments
  • Credentialing
Newsroom
  • Newsroom Home
  • Inside Life Changing Medicine Blog
  • News Releases
About
  • Why UPMC
  • Facts & Stats
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Community Commitment
  • Financials
  • Supporting UPMC
  • HealthBeat Blog
  • UPMC Apps
  • UPMC Enterprises
  • UPMC Health Plan
  • UPMC International
  • Nondiscrimination Policy
Life changing is...
Follow UPMC
  • Contact Us
  • Website/Email Terms of Use
  • Medical Advice Disclaimer
  • Privacy Information
  • Active Privacy Alerts
  • Sitemap
© 2025 UPMC I Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Supplemental content provided by Healthwise, Incorporated. To learn more, visit healthwise.org
Find Care
Providers
Video Visit
Portal Login