BREAKING NEWS! COVID-19 Antibodies: Study Shows That Certain Antibodies From Recovered Patients Actually Helps Not Inhibits The SARS-CoV-2 Virus!
Source: COVID-19 Antibodies Aug 05, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes ago
COVID-19 Antibodies: Researchers from the Medical University of Vienna-Austria in an attempt to develop a test to determine whether COVID-19 patients develop protective antibodies after having the disease came across a shocking discovery in that there were certain antibodies that actually help the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus by enhancing its ability to bind to the ACE receptors even better.
The research findings were published in the journal: Allergy
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/all.14523
A new laboratory test was however developed by the study group and it was able to determine which patients had developed protective antibodies after a infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The scientists from Medical University of Vienna's Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research discovered that only around 60% of patients who have had COVID-19 and recovered from it develop protective antibodies and, for the first time, they were able to show that some antibodies even "assist" the virus by augmenting it to the cells of the host.
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Researchers from the Infectiology and Immunology departments of the university led by Dr Rudolf Valenta developed an ELISA laboratory test to identify patients who had developed protective antibodies after having COVID-19. This showed that only 60% of patients convalescing from COVID-19 developed antibodies that inhibit the interaction of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) with ACE2. The ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2) receptor for SARS-CoV-2 occurs predominantly in the respiratory tract and other organs affected by the virus.
Dr Valenta told Thailand Medical News, "The positive outcome is that we now have a proper test that can identify antibodies and show whether people who have already been infected have protective immunity or not."
But at the same time, the research team also discovered that certain immunocomplexes consisting of RBD and patient antibodies have a higher binding rate to ACE2. This is a hitherto unknown mechanism that enables the virus to dock onto cells more easily.
Principal Investigator Dr Rudolf Valenta explained, "
This is the first study to provide evidence for an increase in RBD binding to ACE2 caused by sera from patients who produced RBD-specific IgG antibodies. This could be explained by the formation of immune complexes consisting of RBD and antibodies that bind to RBD without blocking the receptor interaction and eventually may be directed to carbohydrate epitopes of the virus. Such a mechanism of immune complex-enhanced SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding would explain findings of immune enhancement in COVID-19.”
He added, ‘It is also conceivable that such an immune complex-mediated cross-linking
of infected cells or cells containing ACE2-bound virus could be responsible for the inexplicably high incidence of thromboembolic events as observed in patients suffering from severe COVID-19 despite massive anticoagulation. In this context it should be mentioned that ACE2 is expressed on vascular endothelial cells. However studies are needed to investigate if antibody-mediated increases of RBD binding to ACE2 have a clinical relevance.”
He said that further research is now definitely needed to find out exactly what this means in terms of immunity and for vaccine development.
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