While the world is waiting for a vaccine for COVID-19, researchers at UMass Medical School might have found another preventative measure to treat patients.
Based on research dated 2004, Dr. Yang Wang and colleagues discuss antibodies that can confer immunity to COVID-19.
Dr Wang spoke to MassLive on Friday about how these findings could help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
What did researchers find?
Wang, the deputy director of product discovery at MassBiologics and associate professor of medicine at UMass Medical School, led researchers who recovered frozen hybridoma cells from studies in 2004, specifically looking at SARS – another type of coronavirus. Hybridomas are immortalized cells that produce antibodies.
Sixteen years ago, MassBiologics was ready to begin clinical trials, but SARS disappeared. Returning to the files, researchers have determined that the two coronaviruses, SARS and COVID-19, are approximately 90% similar. Early tests, however, showed that the antibody developed 16 years ago was ineffective.
Wang and her colleagues built on that research and found that other antibodies coat mucosal surfaces such as the respiratory tract, preventing pathogens – such as COVID-19 – from binding to host cells.
How does it work?
The human body can produce five categories of antibodies. The COVID-19 vaccine studies that are in the late stages of development focus on IgG antibodies, which exist primarily in blood serum and are normally injected, Wang said. Those antibodies can attack a virus while it is in the bloodstream.
The antibodies identified by UMass Medical School are IgA antibodies, Wang said. These are found in human respirators – like the mucous membranes analyzed by Wang and her colleagues – and can be used to block pathogens from binding to host cells.
“It’s the first line of defense when you encounter pathogens,” Wang said.
Instead of injection, the IgA antibodies would best be inserted through a nebulizer or inhaler, Wang said.
Is it a fax?
Now. Antibody treatment is considered a more passive response to a virus compared to a vaccine, Wang said.
A vaccine is often a weak strain of a virus injected into a person, which requires the body to produce antibodies to attack the virus. With treatment with antibody, the blood proteins enter the body to attack the virus or prevent infection – in this case, through an inhaler or nebulizer – but the body does not learn to develop its own antibodies.
Remember the old adage, “Give a person a fish and you will feed it one day; teach a person to fish and you will feed them for a lifetime.”
When forcing the body to produce antibodies, a vaccine is expected to prevent a virus from infecting a human body for long periods of time. Antibodies do not provide permanent protection, Wang said. Eventually they disappear.
That’s why some people can catch the same flu shot twice in one season, she added.
How can it be useful, even after a vaccine is released?
Often, a vaccine can take a while to build up its antibody body, Wang said. Those who are most at risk for experiencing a severe case of the coronavirus, such as older adults or those who have been immunocompromised, will probably need the most time for a vaccine to respond in their body, Wang said.
The IgA antibodies can supplement the vaccine in the meantime, giving the body the protection to make immunity, Wang said.
The antibodies can also help patients who could not receive a vaccine but were infected by the coronavirus.
What comes next?
Wang said her studies show that IgA antibodies were much more successful at neutralizing the coronavirus than IgG antibodies.
Her work has attracted interest from abroad. Wang said she has received worldwide calls from scientists seeking more information on IgA antibodies. Much, if not all, of the research targeting a COVID-19 vaccine includes IgG antibodies, she added.
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