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Covid-19: The importance of flu shots +Insight into immune response
2. How to Tell if You Have the Flu, a Cold, Allergies or COVID-19
Northwestern University epidemiologist Dr. Sadiya Khan breaks down the symptoms for COVID-19 and how they compare to typical seasonal viruses and allergies, while also stressing the importance of getting a flu vaccine this year — something the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending people do by October 31.
"By getting a flu vaccine, you not only protect yourself, you boost your own immune system and protect others from the flu as well as a more severe illness if you were to contract both influenza and COVID-19," said Dr. Khan, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Getting vaccinated is especially important if you are pregnant or immunocompromised or have direct contact with someone who is."
https://scitechdaily.com/how-to-tell-if-you-have-the-flu-a-cold-allergies-or-covid-19/
2. Critical Insight Into COVID-19 Immune Response From New Study of Serum Samples
As vaccine trials progress and public health officials brace for a rise in COVID-19 cases, understanding how the body defends itself from SARS-CoV-2 infection is essential. New research, published in Clinical and Translational Immunology, provides a clearer picture of the protective antibodies induced by this virus and their role in serious illness and what’s needed for full protection.
Based on a study of serum samples collected from 32 hospitalized COVID-19 patients and from 17 asymptomatic subjects who had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, University of Vermont (UVM) immunologist Sean Diehl, Ph.D., and colleagues found that the level of antibodies correlated with disease severity.
"As this was early in the pandemic, some expected that sicker patients would have less of these antibodies, but we found the opposite,” says Diehl, who believes that “higher antibody levels in sicker patients is likely reflective of the presumed higher viral load in sicker patients." This finding has also been confirmed by others in cohorts of COVID-19 patients in Boston and Seattle.
....Using a serological assay developed by Diehl’s colleague Florian Krammer, Ph.D., of Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, the researchers measured serum antibodies that target a specific domain of the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — the so-called receptor binding domain. Antibodies targeting this domain, abbreviated “RBD-S,” can prevent the virus from infecting cells; for that reason, it is considered the best candidate for a protective antibody response — a key goal of vaccine development.
....In addition, they discovered no differences in anti-RBD-S antibodies in men and women, despite evidence that men are more likely to die from COVID-19 than women. Surprisingly, many elderly patients — those 80 years old and above — produced as strong an antibody response as the 40-year-olds in the study, which was inconsistent with the common belief that the elderly have a weaker immune response. Another insight was that the few individuals who died did not have different level of antibodies versus those who recovered.
https://scitechdaily.com/critical-insight-into-covid-19-immune-response-from-new-study-of-serum-samples/
Northwestern University epidemiologist Dr. Sadiya Khan breaks down the symptoms for COVID-19 and how they compare to typical seasonal viruses and allergies, while also stressing the importance of getting a flu vaccine this year — something the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending people do by October 31.
"By getting a flu vaccine, you not only protect yourself, you boost your own immune system and protect others from the flu as well as a more severe illness if you were to contract both influenza and COVID-19," said Dr. Khan, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Getting vaccinated is especially important if you are pregnant or immunocompromised or have direct contact with someone who is."
https://scitechdaily.com/how-to-tell-if-you-have-the-flu-a-cold-allergies-or-covid-19/
2. Critical Insight Into COVID-19 Immune Response From New Study of Serum Samples
As vaccine trials progress and public health officials brace for a rise in COVID-19 cases, understanding how the body defends itself from SARS-CoV-2 infection is essential. New research, published in Clinical and Translational Immunology, provides a clearer picture of the protective antibodies induced by this virus and their role in serious illness and what’s needed for full protection.
Based on a study of serum samples collected from 32 hospitalized COVID-19 patients and from 17 asymptomatic subjects who had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, University of Vermont (UVM) immunologist Sean Diehl, Ph.D., and colleagues found that the level of antibodies correlated with disease severity.
"As this was early in the pandemic, some expected that sicker patients would have less of these antibodies, but we found the opposite,” says Diehl, who believes that “higher antibody levels in sicker patients is likely reflective of the presumed higher viral load in sicker patients." This finding has also been confirmed by others in cohorts of COVID-19 patients in Boston and Seattle.
....Using a serological assay developed by Diehl’s colleague Florian Krammer, Ph.D., of Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, the researchers measured serum antibodies that target a specific domain of the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — the so-called receptor binding domain. Antibodies targeting this domain, abbreviated “RBD-S,” can prevent the virus from infecting cells; for that reason, it is considered the best candidate for a protective antibody response — a key goal of vaccine development.
....In addition, they discovered no differences in anti-RBD-S antibodies in men and women, despite evidence that men are more likely to die from COVID-19 than women. Surprisingly, many elderly patients — those 80 years old and above — produced as strong an antibody response as the 40-year-olds in the study, which was inconsistent with the common belief that the elderly have a weaker immune response. Another insight was that the few individuals who died did not have different level of antibodies versus those who recovered.
https://scitechdaily.com/critical-insight-into-covid-19-immune-response-from-new-study-of-serum-samples/