Neutralizing Antibodies against SARS-CoV2

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an illness due to a novel coronavirus which is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Though this virus is recently identified in 2019, it is closely related to other coronaviruses namely SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. A neutralizing antibody (NAb) is defined as an antibody that is responsible for defending cells from pathogens. They are produced naturally by the body as part of its immune response, and their production is triggered by both infections and vaccinations against infections. Articles published databases of PubMed, Embase, SCOPUS and Cochrane were studied. The keywords used by authors were ‘SARS-CoV-2”, “COVID-19”, “seroprevalence”, “convalescent plasma”, “neutralizing antibodies”, “antibodies”, “antibody dependent enhancement”. There is great importance of neutralizing antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most of the patients who suffered with SARS-CoV-2 develop different titers of NAbs at an interval of 14 and 20 days after infection. When all three immunoglobulin classes namely IgG, IgM, and IgA are formed and work synergistically, the maximum neutralization activity against SARS-CoV-2 is observed. The reduction in NAb titre occurs in two phases. There are many new cases of re-infections reported from all over the world which suggest that immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is short lasting and incomplete. Vaccines play an important role in preventing deaths and hospitalization caused by infectious diseases and contributes to controlling the spread of the disease, thus their impact on infection and serious illness is significant.

Keywords

• antibody-dependent enhancement
• convalescent plasma
• covid-19
• covid- 19 vaccines
• neutralizing antibodies
• sars-cov-2