Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have confirmed that antibodies can protect from Covid-19 reinfection. The study, which has demonstrated immunity against covid in human beings for the first time, has raised the hopes that a vaccine will be effective against the virus.
According to the study, people infected with the Covid-19 virus develop neutralising antibodies. So far, most studies about the antibodies were conducted on animals.
“The development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 would be greatly facilitated by the identification of immunological correlates of protection in humans. However, to date, studies on protective immunity have only been performed in animal models and correlates of protection have not been established in humans,” the University of Washington researchers wrote.
The researchers carried out a retrospective analysis on a fishing vessel that departed from Seattle in May 2020 and was associated with a high attack rate.
Crew members of the ship underwent viral and serological testing before the departure of the ship. Same tests were conducted on them upon their return.
Three individuals who had a high antibody count (known as titers) were found to remain remained uninfected even when there was an outbreak on the ship.
“None of these crew members with neutralising antibody titers showed evidence of bona fide viral infection or experienced any symptoms during the viral outbreak. Therefore, the presence of neutralising antibodies from prior infection was significantly associated with protection against reinfection,” the researchers wrote.
Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, US. has developed a new experimental vaccine which is found to be effective at preventing pneumonia in mice infected with the COVID-19 virus.
“Unlike many of the other vaccines under development, this vaccine is made from a virus that is capable of spreading in a limited fashion inside the human body, which means it is likely to generate a strong immune response,” said co-senior author Professor Michael Diamond. “Since the virus is capable of replicating, it can be grown to high levels in the lab, so it is easy to scale up and should be more cost-effective than some of the other vaccine candidates. So while what we have shown is just the proof-of-concept, I think it is very promising.”
