(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) The latest research says that the immune response of people with asymptomatic New Coronary Pneumonia may be weak
China News Agency, Beijing, June 18 (Reporter Sun Zifa) International professional academic journal "Nature-Medical" published an online medical research paper recently completed by Chinese scholars on the 18th, saying that he was infected with the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), But people who have never developed any symptoms of new coronary pneumonia (COVID-19) may have a weaker immune response to the virus.
Qiu Jingfu, Chen Juan, and Huang Ailong of Chongqing Medical University are co-corresponding authors of this paper. This study details the clinical analysis and immunological analysis of 37 asymptomatic patients with new coronary pneumonia.
According to research papers, most people with new coronavirus infections will develop mild to severe respiratory diseases. Symptoms include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath—usually after 2-14 days of exposure to the virus. However, other people who test positive for infection are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, and the clinical details of these patients are not clear.
Huang Ailong and others studied 37 asymptomatic infections diagnosed in Wanzhou District, Chongqing before April 10, 2020. They were identified from 178 new coronavirus infections, including 22 females and 15 males, aged 8 -75 years old (median value is 41 years old). The study found that the median duration of virus excretion in these asymptomatic patients was 19 days, compared with 14 days for 37 symptomatic patients; during the acute phase of infection (viruses can be detected in the respiratory tract), the former had specific levels of virus-specific IgG antibodies Lower than the latter. Eight weeks after discharge, the level of neutralizing antibodies in asymptomatic patients decreased by 81.1%, while symptomatic patients decreased by 62.2%. In addition, the levels of 18 pro-inflammatory cytokines and anti-inflammatory cytokines (cell signaling proteins) in asymptomatic patients are also low. The author believes that this suggests that asymptomatic patients may have a weaker immune response to new coronavirus infection.
The author of the paper also observed that most asymptomatic patients began to decline their IgG levels within 2-3 months of infection. This result was determined by chemiluminescence magnetic enzyme immunoassay. The researchers believe that this finding and previous analysis of neutralizing antibodies in people with new coronary pneumonia have highlighted the potential risks of using "immune passports", supporting the continued use of public health interventions and extensive virus testing.
The authors of the paper stated that in order to determine the duration of antibody-based immunity, there is an urgent need to further study larger-scale symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. (Finish)