The head of Rospotrebnadzor, the chief sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation, Anna Popova, said that studies will soon be completed that will allow the detection of antibodies produced in the body of a person who has coped with coronavirus. She made such a statement on Saturday, during a press conference held in Rospotrebnadzor.
According to Popova, working in this direction, the Federal State Budget Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vektor has already created a test system that can detect antibodies. The analysis procedure takes about six hours.
"What level of people today have immunity (to coronavirus. - RT ) in the Russian Federation, we can say a little later, after, I really hope, next week we will register a test system that will be used in the enzyme immunoassay" - said Popova.
As the head of Rospotrebnadzor clarified, the test system will determine the phase of the disease with coronavirus. The presence of class M immunoglobulin in the blood (IgM, “quick response” antibodies) means that the fight against infection is in the acute phase and is not yet complete. Meanwhile, the presence of class G immunoglobulin (IgG, antibodies of "memory") indicates that the patient has already encountered this virus and has immunity to it.
Referring to the results of a study by domestic experts, Popova said that the "first reaction of collective immunity" to COVID-19 in Russia was recorded in mid-March.
At the same time, referring to the lack of scientific data, the chief medical officer refrained from asserting that holders of antibodies to a new type of coronavirus have guaranteed immunity to reinfection.
The head of Rospotrebnadzor considers it necessary to continue the study of the process of developing immunity to COVID-19. For this purpose, the “Vector” test system was created. Although, as Popova noted, the department is ready to work with any other analogues.
On March 27, speaking at a meeting of the government coordinating council for coronavirus, the chief sanitary doctor of Russia said that the appearance of an antibody test will allow, among medical personnel, to identify "people who already have immunity and who can work more freely with patients."
In a commentary from RT, professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences Konstantin Severinov noted that the antibody test system "will technically simplify and speed up the screening of large numbers of people." This will allow the identification of citizens who have suffered an infection and become resistant to coronavirus. At the same time, the expert called to wait for the first practical results of using test systems in order to draw conclusions about their “sensitivity and reliability”.
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- © Pavel Kononov
In turn, the head of the virus ecology laboratory of the Research Center for Fundamental and Translational Medicine Kirill Sharshov believes that the development of a test system will increase the pace of research in the field of collective (population) immunity to COVID-19.
“It is generally accepted that the more people got sick with a virus, the higher the collective immunity. Test systems are just necessary for conducting relevant studies, identifying people who have undergone coronavirus, including in an asymptomatic form, ”Sharshov said in a conversation with RT.
“The immune system responds”
The importance of creating a test system for antibodies during a meeting of the President of the Russian Federation with members of the government was expressed by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. She said that by the end of March, Russian scientists had studied 226 blood serum samples from people "who were not registered as patients with a new coronavirus infection." According to her, from this number “11 people were identified who had been ill and have antibodies to the new coronavirus”.
“At present, the State Research Center“ Vector ”of Rospotrebnadzor has developed a test system for detecting antibodies in the blood serum of patients and those who recovered after a new coronavirus, as well as for studying population immunity and evaluating the effectiveness of vaccines being developed,” said Golikova.
As the employees of the Scientific Clinical Center for Precision and Regenerative Medicine of Kazan Federal University (KFU) found out, antibodies in human blood are produced 5-7 days after infection.
In late March, in an interview with RT, Konstantin Severinov said that antibody testing will help improve ways to combat COVID-19. At the same time, he drew attention to a number of difficulties associated with the collection of a large amount of biological material and the "detection of antibodies."
“What is the meaning of the antibody test: sick people have pathogens in the bloodstream, our immune system responds to this disease by producing antibodies. Antibodies are special proteins that interact with a foreign agent and help us inactivate it, ”Severinov explained.
In addition to “Vector,” employees of the Kazan Federal University (KFU) are working on the development of a test system for antibodies in the Russian Federation in cooperation with the ANO “Research Center for DNA”.
According to the director of the Scientific Clinical Center for Precision and Regenerative Medicine, professor of the Department of Genetics of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology of KFU Albert Rizvanov, the test system will work on the principle of a pregnancy test strip, but a drop of blood will be applied to it. If a person is infected with coronavirus or has recently been ill, the test will show two bars.
“In this development, antibodies of both early (IgM) and late immune response (IgG), which are produced immediately on several viral proteins, will be determined simultaneously. All this, as we expect, will increase the sensitivity and informativeness of our test system, ”Rizvanova quoted the KFU Unified Information and Publishing Center.
"The clinical picture"
Great attention is paid to the use of antibodies in the fight against coronavirus in China. In particular, during the rampant epidemic, Chinese doctors transfused the blood plasma of donors recovering from COVID-19 to seriously ill patients.
This method, as the Committee on the Control and Management of State Property of the Peoples Republic of China reported in February, in a number of cases helped save people in critical condition.
“The clinical picture has changed, within 12-24 hours after such therapy, laboratory studies have confirmed a significant decrease in the indicators of inflammatory processes. The proportion of lymphocytes in the blood increased, the degree of its saturation with oxygen also increased, and the indicators of the viral load on the body became better, ”TASS quoted a statement from the Chinese department.
The United States authorities also plan to use the blood plasma transfusion method (today the USA is the leader in the number of cases of COVID-19). At the end of March, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the appropriate clinical trials.
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- © Evgeny Epanchintsev
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, the plasma transfusion of people who defeated coronavirus makes it easier for doctors to treat patients.
However, experts interviewed by RT indicate that the effectiveness of this method has not yet been proven.
“Transfusion is often used in medicine, for example, with the support of cancer patients. However, in the case of coronavirus, in my opinion, this method should not be perceived as a universal and effective way to help infected people, since there is no reliable scientific data on this subject, ”said Sharshov.
Another question that scientists are trying to answer is whether re-infection of COVID-19 is possible. At the beginning of the year, Chinese doctors conducted an experiment on macaques and found that monkeys can not become infected with coronavirus after an illness.
Commenting on the re-infection, Konstantin Severinov noted that antibodies are produced during the immune response and make the body resistant to infection. At the same time, as the expert emphasized, to date there is no data on how much time immunoglobulins against COVID-19 can remain in the bloodstream.
“The epidemic began very recently, and now it is impossible to answer key questions, including the properties of antibodies against COVID-19. Antibodies really give immunity and significantly reduce the likelihood of reinfection, but we do not know how much they can be in the bloodstream. To understand this, lengthy research is needed. For the same reason, today it is impossible to determine the frequency of vaccination, ”Severinov explained.
The scientist also emphasized that the owner of anti-COVID-19 immunoglobulins should observe safety precautions - the presence of a person’s immunity to coronavirus does not exclude the possibility that he can become a carrier, thereby harming others.