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In Serbia and Germany, people who have recovered from the coronavirus are invited to donate blood plasma to help patients fight the virus. But how effective is this therapy?
So-called passive immunization is a form of treatment in which blood plasma is taken from people who have recovered from coronaviruses to be administered to those who cannot develop antibodies on their own to fight the virus. In both Serbia and Germany there are already a large number of recovered patients and there is great interest in both countries to donate blood plasma.
Marija Gnjatovic, associate researcher at the Institute for the Application of Nuclear Energy and Professor Erhard Zayfried of the Frankfurt Institute for Blood Transfusion and Immunology spoke on the subject of DW.
– Plasma donors are exclusively patients who have developed high levels of effective antibodies after infection, which unfortunately is not always the case – explained Gnjatovic.
According to her, a high level of antibodies does not automatically imply their effectiveness in fighting the virus, but it is certainly a better opportunity if the level of antibodies is high.
What is not yet known is whether patients with symptoms of Covida-19 develop more or fewer antibodies than those without symptoms. According to research by the Frankfurt Blood Transfusion Institute to date, there are patients who have severe symptoms but have poorly developed antibodies. On the other hand, there were patients who had no symptoms and developed strong antibodies. It is currently being determined at this Institute whether the severity of the disease and the types of symptoms have any influence on the construction of antibodies in the body.
Professor Seyfried noted that this type of treatment was seen as an “emergency package when there are no drugs and vaccines” and added that nothing could replace the active immunization that would be achieved with vaccination. The truth is that this therapy does not allow patients to be massively treated.
– This therapy is provided only to seriously ill patients whose body cannot develop antibodies on its own – says Gnjatovic.
Clinical studies are required to determine the effectiveness of the therapy.
Although in countries such as Germany, China, America and South Korea, fewer patients have been found to have contributed to recovery from blood plasma treatment, detailed clinical trials are needed to determine the true effectiveness of this therapy.
The world’s first prospective cohort study began at the Frankfurt Institute for Blood Transfusion, with the aim of examining the effectiveness of blood plasma in treating seriously ill patients. Of the two cohorts infected with the virus, one will receive blood plasma with antibodies against the crown and the other will only receive medications currently in use to alleviate the symptoms of the disease.
– Blood plasma therapy can also have side effects, such as allergic reactions, and it may happen that the patient simply does not respond to therapy – explained Professor Zayfrid, noting that the study will contribute to understanding the body’s immune response, which is the key to further combat the coronavirus pandemic. .
Clinical trials in Serbia will also be organized at the Blood Transfusion Institute, to further examine the efficacy of this therapy.
Profession agrees: protective immunity for at least a fixed period
However, blood plasma is not only used for the treatment of patients, but is also of great importance in determining the development of immunity against coronaviruses.
Extensive research is currently underway in the scientific community to determine what percentage of people develop immunity and how long it lasts.
Gnjatovic noted that previous tests were performed on people with SARS and MERS, who are from the same coronal virus family as SARS-CoV-2, and that it was later discovered that immunity was generated from two to even five years.
– Some viruses create long-term immunity, but there are certain viruses that create immunity for only a limited time, such as the flu virus. Other viruses produce antibodies that cannot defend the body against the virus, which is the case with HIV – said Gnjatovic.
She points out that the opinion of the entire scientific community is that SARS CoV-2 will develop immunity for at least a couple of months to a year, which Professor Zayfrid also confirmed.
Both experts point out that it is essential to examine as closely as possible the immune response of people who have survived the virus, as they can return to work early, without the risk of contracting or spreading the virus.
To test immunity, highly reliable assays that detect the presence of antibodies in blood plasma are needed.
The safest is the national production of tests.
The Institute for the Application of Nuclear Energy at Zemun has announced that it will begin production of so-called ELISA tests in just over a month, which should establish the total presence of antibodies in the blood.
– Of all the tests, our experience shows that ELISA tests are more reliable than rapid tests, which look like pregnancy tests. These tests do not have the ability to detect a high or low presence of antibodies, and ELISA tests can do this, and it is important that we understand the immune response, Gnjatovic explained.
She emphasized that the most important reason for developing domestic tests lies in the fact that the reliability of foreign tests is not guaranteed. “If someone is infected with another coronavirus, you can get a false positive if you have a bad test,” added the associate.
