Once antibodies are produced, can we resist SARS-CoV-2?

!--webeditor: page title" -- April 12, 2020 / -- Patrick Vallance, the UK government's chief scientific adviser, recently said that many organisations are conducting blood tests on COVID-19, adding: "This will tell us who has been infected with the virus and now has antibodies and therefore will not be infected with it."
"But is Vallance right?" Once we have antibodies, are we protected? Understanding the prospects and pitfalls of relying on antibodies to protect us helps understand our immune system, how it behaves during coronavirus infection, and how it protects us in the future.
, not everyone who has not been infected with COVID-19 is immune to the disease.
our bodies do have the ability to protect themselves.
addition, our immune system can learn and remove viruses from the body during infection.
this is basically the main method of treatment at the moment, with hospitals supporting COVID-19 patients while their own bodies are fighting the virus.
, for too many people, the virus won the battle and they left.
image Source: Multi-layered protection of the immune system has several layers.
first and top layers are made up of mechanical barriers, such as hair in the nose and mucus in the air, that prevent pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 from entering lung cells.
further down, these lung cells are filled with "inner" defenses to prevent infection.
most viruses that can infect humans have evolved to bypass these defenses and quickly overcome them.
attack triggered the next wave of "innited" immunity.
this includes a fast, broad-spectrum defense system that includes direct antiviral killing mechanisms or promotes inflammation, thereby kicking the virus out of the body.
for most people, this innate response slows down and controls the infection, making the final layer of immune -- your adaptive immune system -- work.
immunity consists of antibodies produced by B cells and T cells of antiviral killer cells.
B and T cells can learn how to respond to specific threats during infection.
this reaction usually takes a while to work, but another benefit is that when it's there, it can last for years, forming memories of past infections.
this memory is the basis for vaccine effectiveness, such as MMR injections to prevent measles, mumps and rubella.
memory will be key to fighting SARS-CoV-2 in the months and years ahead.
the problem of obtaining immunity in a natural way is that it comes with a significant risk of serious illness and death.
aware of the fact that the vaccine was the driving force behind its initial development, our goal is to limit or virtually eliminate risk while maintaining the ability to induce long-term memory immunity.
will the immunity last? It is clear from the studies conducted on SARS-CoV-2 that those infected with SARS-CoV-2 have the multi-layered immune response mentioned above.
fact, for some people, this immune response may be behind some of their symptoms.
, in the laboratory, antibodies produced during SARS-CoV-2 infection bind, identify, and block the infection.
, however, there is not much information about T-cell activity, which means that only half of our potential immune defenses against SARS-CoV-2 have been studied.
study of laboratory monkeys found that once infected with SARS-CoV-2, they would not be infected for a week after recovery.
shows a degree of immunity to infection, which is exactly what we expect.
there have been reports of potential re-infections among those found, this has not been proven and, if correct, may only occur in a few cases.
the real question now is not whether to get immunized, but how long it lasts.
We know from SARS that immunity may decline or decrease over time, and for related seasonal human coronavirus, such as OC43, the virus does not produce long-standing antibodies that can subtly evolve around our antibodies to bypass our immunity to a level that can be re-infected.
Photo Source: As more and more people become infected, survive, and produce antibodies and T-cells to fight SARS-CoV-2, we may eventually reach a threshold of "group immunity."
not everyone has immunity, but because most people have immunity, people who are not immune are very less likely to get the disease.
problem with group immunization through natural infections is that large numbers of vulnerable people, such as those with weak immune systems, pregnant women or the elderly, are at high risk of illness and death.
why getting high levels of vaccine-mediated immunization is critical to protecting them.
ideally, we need a safe and effective vaccine to help us get immunized.
, as the pandemic develops, group immunity may begin to work at a later stage and help control infections in the short to medium term.
this should not be the only target for SARS-CoV-2 control.
, as outlined by the World Health Organization, active testing and isolation measures are the best way to slow an influenza pandemic.
It is because some very good tests have been developed to identify people with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (infected and recovered) that will undoubtedly help determine the spread of pandemics and may help identify people who have some degree of immunity to the virus."
there are still many questions about the usefulness of this information, because we don't know how long any immunity will last.
we don't even know how many antibodies are needed to be classified as protected.
a safe and effective vaccine would greatly dispel such doubts and should continue to be a key goal in the fight against COVID-19.
() Reference: 1 Coronavirus: once you have antibodies, are you safe? A serological assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion in humans !--/ewebeditor:page--!--ewebeditor:page title="--3"Macaque monkeys can't become reinfected with COVID-19, small study !--.