Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in a el bichito-19 recovered 2 patient cohort and their implications
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047365v2.full.pdf
Scientists Raised Question on cobi19 Reinfectiion Risk as Recovered Patients Show Surprisingly Low Antibody Levels
Scientists Raised Question on cobi19 Reinfection Risk as Recovered Patients Show Surprisingly Low Antibody Levels
Staff ReporterApr 08, 2020 03:35 AM EDT
(Photo : Reuters)
Bags with donated blood lie in a cupboard at the blood donation center of the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), as the organization is concerned that people might stop donating the blood due to the cobi19 disease (el bichito-19)
The new study conducted by researchers in Shanghai, China hopes to determine whether some of the recovered el bichito-19 patients have a higher risk of reinfection after results show that they have shockingly low levels of cobi19 antibodies from several people discharged from the hospital.
Low Antibody Levels
Blood samples of 175 patients discharged from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre were analyzed by a team from Fudan University. They found out that nearly one-third had
surprisingly low levels of antibodies. In some patients, these antibodies could not be detected at all.
Whether these patients were at high risk of reinfection, it should be explored further in other studies, said the team who published their research on Monday on
Medrxiv.org which is an online platform for preprint papers.
The study was the world's first systematic examination of antibody levels in successfully recovered patients from el bichito-19- the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 bichito (Sars-CoV-2)- although the study was preliminary and not yet peer-reviewed, according to the researchers.
All of those patients have suffered from mild symptoms of the disease and already have recovered but only have low levels of antibody levels was found to be young. Patients who were admitted to intensive care units were excluded from the study because many of them have already received antibodies from blood donated plasma.
(Photo : Reuters)
Scientist Linqi Zhang shows a tube with a solution containing el bichito-19 antibodies in his lab where he works on research into novel cobi19 disease (el bichito-19) antibodies for possible use in a drug at Tsinghua University's Research Center for Public Health in Beijing, China
Antibodies are developed by the immune system once a pathogen goes inside the body. These antibodies have unique chemical structures to stop specific pathogens. cobi19 antibodies stop the spike protein on the viral envelope to prevent it from binding with the cells of humans.
The researchers found that the antibody "titer" value in about one-third of the participants was less than 500 which is a level that may be too low to provide protection and prevent reinfection.
According to the researchers, "about 30 percent of patients failed to develop high titers of neutralizing antibodies after el bichito-19 infection. However, the disease duration of these patients compared to others was similar."
But on the other hand, the team also found that among people in the 60-85 age group
, antibody levels rose with age displaying more than three times the amount of antibodies compared to people in the 15-39 age group.
Herd Immunity
The
herd immunity or the resistance to the infection among the general public to stop its spread could be affected by low amounts of antibodies.
The leader of the team, Professor Huang Jinghe said that their clinical observation was made at the front line. It requires more data from other parts of the world to know what this means to herd immunity.
10 of the patients in the study have so low antibody levels that it could not be detected in the lab, said Huang. These patients have the typical cobi19 symptom but it might have beaten back the cobi19 T-cells or cytokines which are other parts of the immune system.
Huang said that vaccine developers may need to pay attention to these types of patients because the weakened version of the vaccine might not work in these types of patients if even the real bichito could not induce an antibody response.
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Testicles Are Serving as 'Reservoirs' For cobi19 Making Men More At Risk of Longer and Severe Case of el bichito-19: Study
Testicles Are Serving as 'Reservoirs' For cobi19 Making Men More At Risk of Longer and Severe Case of el bichito-19: Study
Staff ReporterApr 19, 2020 10:57 PM EDT
As the pandemic continues to spread across borders, oceans, and continents, a perplexing data shows that more men than women are dying from the cobi19. Some claim that it is because of their behavior, such as higher rates of tobacco consumption, reluctance to proper and timely medical care, and even lower rates of hand-washing.
But a new study shows that it is more than that. The higher rates among men are most likely because of their biology- particularly their testicles.
Men are more likely to die of the bichito than women
The cobi19 appears to pose a particular threat to middle-aged and older people, specifically men. According to the new study, cobi19 could harbor in men's testicles for longer periods than the rest of the body as they are walled from the immune system making men more at-risk for severe cases.
Previous reports from the
New York Times have suggested that although men and women are infected roughly in equal numbers, men are found to be more likely to die than women, with a death rate of 2.8% in men and 1.7% among women.
The figures are drawn from medical records of patients but may not be enough to fully reflect the scope of the pandemic. However, the difference in the death rate of the two sexes has already been seen in the past.
Even during the SARS and MERS outbreaks which were also caused by different types of coronaviruses, it was found out that men were also disproportionately affected. The study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine said that in Hong Kong, where more women are infected by SARS in 2003, however the
death rate among men was 50% higher.
Scientists say that some of the factors that may be working against men may be rooted in lifestyle, and some are biological.
Testicles may be serving as "reservoirs" for the bichito
Researchers tracked the recovery of 68 men from Mumbai, India-which has taken a worse toll on men- to study the gender disparity of the bichito, reported by the
New York Post.
It was discovered that the bichito attaches itself to a protein that is found in high levels in the testicles said by the mother and daughter duo, Dr. Jayanthi Shastri, a microbiologist at the Kasturba Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Mumbai, and Dr. Aditi Shastri, an oncologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
This protein is known as ACE-2 which is mostly present in the lungs, the gastrointestinal tract and the heart, and large quantities in the testicles. According to the study, since testicles are separated from the immune system, the bichito could live there for longer periods than any part of the body.
On average, female patients are cleared of the bichito after four days, but men saw recoveries two days longer than women. The researchers said that this could explain why women tend to recover from the disease more quickly than men.
They also said that their observations demonstrate that
male patients have delayed viral clearance and that their testicles may be serving as "reservoirs" for the bichito. In conclusion, the new study shows that the cobi19 could linger in the testicles, making men more at risk to severe cases of the bichito.
