antibodies, immunology, microbiology

The Scientist asks Brigham and Women’s Hospital infectious disease specialist Lindsey Baden about testing for prior infections.

Two recent papers provide insight into possible risk factors for developing the chronic condition, including autoantibodies and diabetes.

All antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 found in breast milk neutralized the virus.

It’s unclear whether differing odds of dying between men and women reflect inherent differences between male and female immune systems or differences rooted in gender norms.

If the immune system makes mistakes—reacting late or getting the target wrong—it can amplify the damage wrought by SARS-CoV-2.

Both of the mRNA vaccines available in the US are highly effective against severe COVID-19, but recent studies suggest that Moderna’s elicits a stronger immune response and might be better at preventing breakthrough infections.  

Scientists are on the hunt for a shot that will protect against not only SARS-CoV-2, but other members of its family that may emerge in the future.

Researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford are exposing healthy volunteers to SARS-CoV-2 for science.

Some of the blood specimens collected in the United States for the NIH’s All of Us research program starting on January 2, 2020, have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

By avoiding the production of antibodies, something vaccines ordinarily induce, the immunization sidesteps the problem of antibody-dependent enhancement, which can amplify infection by a similar virus and is known to occur with dengue and Zika.

In the armpit lymph nodes of people who had received the mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, researchers found germinal centers needed to generate long-lived antibody-making cells.

Mix-and-match shots could simplify vaccine rollout and stimulate more-robust immune responses. Ongoing clinical trials will soon give answers.

A treatment of two monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 is ninefold less effective in the lab against the B.1.351 variant than against the dominant version of the virus.

A B-cell receptor critical for the production of a subset of intestinal antibodies has been pinpointed, but the function of those antibodies remains unclear.

Under emergency protocols, doctors can request to use survivors’ plasma to treat some critically ill COVID-19 patients.  

Antigens originating from the microbiome may trigger an autoimmune response.