Preprint: Vaccination boosts protective responses and counters SARS-CoV-2-induced pathogenic memory B cells, Mishra et al, 2021

Given the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and the recent implementation of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, we have much to learn about the duration of immune protection and the interface between the immune responses to infection and to vaccination.

To address these questions, we monitored immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection in convalescent individuals over seven months and following mRNA vaccination. Spike Receptor-Binding-Domain (RBD)-specific circulating antibodies and plasma neutralizing activity generally decreased over time, whereas RBD-specific memory B cells persisted. Additionally, using antibody depletion techniques, we showed that the neutralizing activity of plasma specifically resides in the anti-RBD antibodies.

More vigorous antibody and B cell responses to vaccination were observed in previously infected subjects relative to uninfected comparators, presumably due to immune priming by infection.

SARS-CoV-2 infection also led to increased numbers of double negative B memory cells, which are described as a dysfunctional B cell subset. This effect was reversed by SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, providing a potential mechanistic explanation for the vaccination-induced reduction in symptoms in patients with “Long-COVID”.

Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.

Clinical Trial
This is a prospective study for research.

Funding Statement
This work was funded by NIH grants R01HL149450, R01HL149450-S1, U01 AI122285-S1, and UL1 TR003017.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.11.21255153v1

 

I think this is highly speculative and almost certainly invalid. The idea of 'bad' B cells has been around since about 2000 and has never made any sense. It was started off by some very dodgy interpretation of mouse experiments. Any B cell can go through a double negative memory phase. These are not 'regulatory' or 'suppressor' B cells/