Webinar by Prof. Danny Altmann from Imperial College London reviews new and exciting studies on COVID-19 antibody immunology and emerging data from all around the world. We have published articles that discuss the importance of Abs in:
- Diagnosis: Current diagnosis for SARS-CoV-2 infection is based on detection of nucleic acid. This test is unable to determine if people have had historical exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Researchers have thus developed a serological assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion in humans. This test can be used to determine if people have immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following cleared infection. Principles of this test can also be used to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection in animals who are susceptible to infection and have been shown to induce nAbs.
- Treatment: Antibody treatment has been suggested as a potential COVID-19 therapeutic. This treatment can either be in the form of high-dose intravenous non-specific immunoglobulins or with convalescent sera from recovered individuals. Convalescent sera could have different forms of SARS-CoV-2 specific Abs, including neutralizing Abs which have been detected in patients with COVID-19. However, current research has not investigated the utility of this treatment in the absence of other interventions.
Source: British Society of Immunology: The ‘Connecting on coronavirus: the expert hub’ webinar series is supported by the British Society for Immunology’s official journals: Immunology and Clinical & Experimental Immunology.
