Antibodies may actually help coronavirus invade cells in some cases, study suggests
- Researchers say they’ve identified a high-risk molecule commonly found in Covid-19 patients that may assist the virus rather than neutralising it
- They found that this problem tends to occur when there is a relatively low level of antibodies in the blood
Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai found that some of the 222 patients in their study had specific antibodies that could actually help the coronavirus invade their immune cells. They were present in 8 per cent of those with mild symptoms, and 76 per cent of those who had recovered from severe illness.
The problem is known as antibody-dependent enhancement, or ADE, and it has been seen before with infections caused by other viruses such as Zika, dengue fever and severe acute respiratory syndrome. It has also hampered drug and vaccine development for these viruses.
The “potential for such ADE responses is of concern for Sars-CoV-2 in the use of convalescent plasma or antibodies as a treatment”, said the team led by Huang Jinghe in a non-peer-reviewed paper posted on preprint site medRxiv.org on Tuesday.
Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Chinese study.