A comprehensive analysis of antibody responses in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could be carried out, according to a study published on September 10 in the open access journal PLOS Pathogens by Chao Wu and Rui Huang of Nanjing University Medical Developing an effective vaccine will affect school and colleagues. The results show that the neutralizing activity of antibodies from recovered patients is typically not strong and decreases sharply within a month of hospital discharge. Image Credit: NIAID RML
A comprehensive analysis of antibody responses in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) According to a study published on September 10 in the Open Access Journal, patients could provide information about the development of an effective vaccine 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 decreases sharply within a month of hospital discharge.
The world is facing an unprecedented challenge with communities and economies affected by the growing COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently no vaccine or effective medication approved to treat or prevent the disease. A better understanding of antibody reactions to SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – provides essential information for developing effective treatments and a preventive vaccine. In the new study, the researchers continuously monitored SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses in 19 non-severe and seven severe COVID-19 patients seven weeks after the onset of the disease.
Most patients generated antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2, including the viral nucleoprotein and three parts of the spike protein: the receptor binding domain, the S1 protein, and the ectodomain. Although 80.7% of recovered COVID-19 patients had varying levels of antibody neutralization activity against SARS-CoV-2, only a small proportion of the patients elicited high levels of neutralization activity. This finding shows the importance of carefully selecting blood samples from recovered patients using antibody neutralization tests prior to transfusion into other COVID-19 patients. Three to four weeks after hospital discharge, the neutralizing activity of antibodies from recovered patients decreased significantly, suggesting that recovered COVID-19 patients may be re-infected with SARS-CoV-2. In addition, severe COVID-19 patients had high levels of non-neutralizing antibodies, which can contribute to the antibody-dependent amplification of the infection. According to the authors, the study provides important insights for serological testing, antibody-based interventions, and vaccine design.
Reference: “A Comprehensive Longitudinal Analysis of the Humoral Responses Specific for Four Recombinant Antigens of SARS-CoV-2 in Severe and Non-Severe COVID-19 Patients” by Yuxin Chen, Xin Tong, Yang Li, Bin Gu, Jiawei Yan, Yong Liu, Han Shen, Rui Huang and Chao Wu, September 10, 2020, PLOS pathogens.
DOI: 10.1371 / journal.ppat.1008796
Funding: This study was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (# 14380459 to CW). the Foundation for the Development of Medical Science and Technology, the Ministry of Health of Nanjing (YKK19056 to YC), the Foundation for the Development of Medical Science and Technology in Nanjing (QRX17141 to YC). Funders had no role in the design of the study, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.
