Johns Hopkins Adopts the Antibody Method of the 19th Century on Covid-19
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Healty - Researchers in the world are busy making drugs for Covid-19. As did medical experts at Johns Hopkins University who adopted antibody methods from the late 19th century to treat corona virus.
These medical experts take the blood of patients who recover from the corona virus. This sample was researched for use in treatments to help protect humans from the Covid-19 pandemic which is currently spreading throughout the world.
infectious disease experts explain how viral antibodies contained in the blood serum of patients recovering from corona virus, can be injected into other people.
This method offers Covid-19 patients short-term protection. This long-standing medical treatment is called passive antibody.
In fact, it turns out that this treatment has existed since the late 19th century and was widely used during the 20th century to help stem the outbreak of measles, polio, mumps and influenza.
Experts believe the method developed in the 1890s could be an important and practical tool to combat Covid-19 today.
The research team from Johns Hopkins University believes that in this new study, antibody therapy can also be carried out in emergencies.
"The placement of this option does not require research or development. It can be used within a few weeks because it depends on standard practices of blood banks," said immunoloi expert Arturo Casadevall.
For treatment to work, corona virus patients who have recovered need to donate their blood after recovering from Covid-19. During this phase, blood serum will contain large amounts of natural antibodies produced against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Natural antibodies from patients recovering from Covid-10
After their bodies produce these natural antibodies in response to pathogens, they can remain circulating in the blood for months, even years after infection.
However, these antibodies are not only useful for individuals recovering from Covid-19.
Because, if the serum is re-extracted and processed again, then this antibody can be injected into others to provide short-term benefits.
This method can be used for patients with serious health risks, uninfected family members of infected patients or to increase medical personnel immunity against greater exposure to pathogens.
"The administration of passive antibodies is the only way to provide direct immunity to vulnerable people," the researchers said in their paper.
It depends on the number and composition of antibodies, so the protection provided by the transferred immunoglobin can last from weeks to months.
By adopting a blood bank technique to filter out other types of infectious agents that may be contained in the blood, this therapy can be low risk for healthy people.
However, this therapy is better, when compared with the threat inherent in Covid-19, which currently does not have a vaccine or drugs to counter it.
Emergency response against corona virus
Based on that, the expert team suggested the use of recovery serum should be considered as an emergency response to protect the public from Covid-19.
Experts assess, of course, Covid-19 to be a pandemic on a much larger scale for smaller outbreaks.
However, that sad fact will actually help in providing serum from the cured patient.
Because, there will be a large number of corona virus patients who recover in the future who can supply their blood to become this antibody serum.
At the time of writing, more than 77,000 people have recovered from Covid-19. According to Johns Hopkins University's latest statistics on the plague, the blood of these patients can easily help to make vital antibodies for others.
"In addition to the public health detention and mitigation protocol, this may be our only short-term choice to treat and prevent Covid-19, and that is something we can begin to implement in the coming weeks and months," Casadevall said.
To that end, John Hopkins University is funding an effort to begin preparing antibody therapy operations for Covid-19 in the Baltimore area in the coming weeks.
Casadevall said doctors in New York were also investigating treatments. While internationally, the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan is looking for ways to develop antibody-based drugs to fight the corona virus.
No one expects passive antibody therapy to be a silver bullet for the new corona virus. But as something that can help flatten the temporary curve during other treatments it is developed.
"Clearly, the use of recovery serum will be a temporary measure that can be used in the midst of the current epidemic," the authors wrote in a paper published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
However, experts say local deployment will require great coordination between different entities.
"Therefore, because we are in the midst of a corona virus pandemic throughout the world, we recommend that institutions consider the use of emergency recovery serum and begin preparations as soon as possible. Time is of the essence," explained experts from Johns Hopkins University.