Question

how antibody therapy would work for Covid 19 patients. Attach two articles that support your comments.

Answer 1

Antibody therapy would work for COVID-19 patients in the following ways:

1. There are two ways in which the human body develops immunity to any infection.
   • By developing antibodies
   • Or by receiving antibodies externally
2. In the first method, the body is exposed to the pathogen either by infection or vaccination.
3. This process allows the body to get acquainted with the pathogen and the body develops antibodies to the pathogen. This is also called acquired immunity
4. The other method in which this can be achieved is by receiving antibodies externally.
5. If a person is administered with antibodies specific to the pathogen, the antibodies attach to the pathogen
6. These antibodies will neutralize the pathogen and reduce their disease-causing capacity.
7. They may also promote cell-mediated attacks on the pathogen and phagocytosis.
8. This is called passive immunity.
9. The source of antibodies can be :
   • Serum of patients who have recovered from the disease
   • Produced in the lab by recombinant DNA technology.
10. The clinical usefulness of passive immunity has been studied with other viral infections.
11. This form of medical intervention has been found to be effective in reducing infection rates and lenght of the illness

Reference -

Hung IF, et al. Convalescent plasma treatment reduced mortality in patients with severe pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus infection. Clin Infect Dis. 2011;52(4):447 - 456

The authors of this study enrolled 93 patients of H1N1 infection who required ICU. 20 patients were administered convalescent sera. They found that the number of deaths in the intervention arm was significantly lower than those who didn't receive the treatment. Apart from this, the viral load, the levels of interleukin 6, 10, and tumor necrosis alpha was was also less. This indicates that treatment with pathogen-specific antibodies help reduce the infection and also inflammation

Gallagher JR. Use of convalescent measles serum to control measles in a preparatory school. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1935;25(5):595-598

The author had vaccinated 62 out of 66 boys in a school with convalescent sera. This serum was obtained from a patient who had recovered from measles.the 62 boys received the sera within 2 to 6 days of exposure to a case of measles. All the 66 boys hadn't suffered from measles in the past. After receiving the sera only 3 boys developed measles. It was postulated in this study, that 25% of this group was likely to develop the disease in the absence of treatment. However, treatment with the sera this number significantly reduced this number