Why decoding the immune response to COVID matters for vaccines

Abstract

the consensus among clinicians and researchers is that the FDA's decision was premature, because not all these antibodies will be protective. There is not yet definitive evidence that this treatment is effective 4 , although trials are ongoing to explore whether convalescent plasma from people with high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the virus might be beneficial in the treatment of severe COVID-19. A more promising approach than convalescent plasma would be to isolate specific and potent neutralizing antibodies from infected patients, and to develop antibody treatments based on these. This approach has been successful for other viral diseases: just last week, the FDA approved one such treatment for Ebola virus. And trials are under way to test the effectiveness of such monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19. How likely is reinfection? Another urgent question is whether a person who has recovered from COVID-19 is protected from future Nature's second pandemic progress report A detailed understanding of immunity is key to developing safe and effective vaccines.

Peritoneal M2 macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles as natural multitarget nanotherapeutics to attenuate cytokine storms after severe infections

“…For example, in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, dramatic elevation of multiple cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-6 and IFN-γ, was observed in the blood of patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, and its severity was strongly associated with multiple organ injury and morality [ 5 , 34 ]. Some immunosuppressive drugs, such as Dex, have shown certain effects on reducing cytokine levels in COVID-19 patients [ 45 ]. However, the overall immunosuppression and possible side effects (such as hypertension and osteonecrosis of the femoral head) caused by these drugs, may adversely reduce viral clearance and increase the risks of secondary infections [ 5 , 34 ].…”

“…S10B-D). In addition to hM2-EVs, hMSC-EVs and Dex were also included in this experiment, since they have been proposed in clinical trials of SARS-CoV-2 patients [ 45 , 50 ]. As expected, elevated numbers of infected cells were observed in response to higher concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus ( Fig.…”

Is COVID-19 severity associated with anti-spike antibody duration? Data from the ARCOVID prospective observational study

“…The study confirms the need for a better understanding of the immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. This would permit to better target public health policies such as the vaccination campaign 2 .…”