Antibody responses in COVID-19 patients could guide vaccine design


Date:
September 10, 2020
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
A comprehensive analysis of antibody responses in coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients could inform the development of
an effective vaccine, according to a new study.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A comprehensive analysis of antibody responses in coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19) patients could inform the development of an effective
vaccine, according to a study published September 10 in the open-access
journal PLOS Pathogens by Chao Wu and Rui Huang of Nanjing University
Medical School, and colleagues. The results show that the neutralizing
activity of antibodies from recovered patients is typically not strong,
and declines sharply within one month after hospital discharge.


==========================================================================
The world is facing an unprecedented challenge with communities and
economies affected by the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there is
no vaccine or effective drugs approved to treat or prevent the disease. A better understanding of antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 -- the
virus that causes COVID-19 -- will provide fundamental information for developing effective treatments and a preventive vaccine. In the new
study, researchers continuously monitored SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses in 19 non-severe and seven severe COVID-19 patients for seven
weeks from disease onset.

Most patients generated antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2, including
the viral nucleoprotein and three parts of the spike protein: the receptor-binding domain, S1 protein, and ectodomain. Although 80.7% of recovered COVID-19 patients had varying levels of antibody neutralization activity against SARS- CoV-2, only a small portion of patients elicited
a potent level of neutralization activity. This result highlights the importance of carefully selecting blood samples from recovered patients
using antibody neutralization assays prior to transfusion into other
COVID-19 patients.

Three to four weeks after hospital discharge, the neutralizing activity
of antibodies from recovered patients declined significantly, suggesting
that recovered COVID-19 patients might be susceptible to reinfection with SARS-CoV- 2. In addition, severe COVID-19 patients had a large amount of non-neutralizing antibodies, which may contribute to antibody-dependent enhancement of infection.

According to the authors, the study provides important insights for
serological testing, antibody-based intervention, and vaccine design.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Yuxin Chen, Xin Tong, Yang Li, Bin Gu, Jiawei Yan, Yong Liu,
Han Shen,
Rui Huang, Chao Wu. A comprehensive, longitudinal analysis of
humoral responses specific to four recombinant antigens of
SARS-CoV-2 in severe and non-severe COVID-19 patients. PLOS
Pathogens, 2020; 16 (9): e1008796 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008796 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200910150328.htm

--- up 2 weeks, 3 days, 6 hours, 50 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)