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Results of a new study suggest that the immune system of people infected with Covid-19 may rely on antibodies created during infections with previous coronaviruses (other than SARS-CoV-2) to help fight disease.
The study sought to understand how coronaviruses inflame the human immune system and to deepen how the antibody response works. The published results appear in Cell Reports Medicine.
This knowledge could help researchers design new diagnoses, assess the healing powers of convalescent plasma, develop new therapeutic treatments and, most importantly, design future vaccines or monoclonal antibody therapies capable of protecting against mutations that could arise in the Covid-19 virus.
The researchers used a tool called PepSeq to finely map antibody responses to all coronaviruses infecting humans. PepSeq is a new technology under development at the Translational Genomics Research Institute and Northern Arizona University.
In addition to SARS-CoV-2, the researchers looked at the antibody responses of two other potentially fatal coronaviruses: MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1.
Source: University of Northern Arizona
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