Powerpoint homework

Literary Review

Focus: Antibody testing and treatment of Covid-19

1. Xu, X., Sun, J., Nie, S. et al. (2020). Seroprevalence of immunoglobulin M and G antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in China. Nature Medicine. doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0949-6

This study evaluated the host serologic response, measured by the levels of immunoglobulins M and G in 17,368 individuals, in the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. The findings show that the seropositivity in Wuhan varied between 3.2% and 3.8% in different sub-cohorts, which suggests that seroprevalence is still relatively low, therefore we still need to be cautious of a second wave of infections.

2. Sempowski et al. (2020), Pandemic Preparedness: Developing Vaccines and Therapeutic Antibodies For COVID19, Cell, doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.041

This article evaluates several strategies that are being used to develop antibody and vaccine countermeasures for Covid-19, hence providing suggestions for rapid development and manufacture of antibody countermeasures and vaccines.

3. Yu et al. (2020). DNA vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques. Science. doi.org/10.1126/science.abc6284

This study demonstrates the protective efficacy of DNA vaccine and vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibody titers against Covid-19 for 35 adult rhesus macaques. This provides another vaccine candidate for Covid-19.

4. Park, A. (2020). Nearly Half of Coronavirus Spread May Be Traced to People Without Any Symptoms. TIME. Retrieved from https://time.com/5848949/covid-19-asymptomatic-spread/

This magazine article explains threats revealed in antibody testing from asymptomatic patients. A study of 16 different groups of Covid-19 patients from around the world shows at minimum 30% of people spread the virus without knowing that they are infected. This shows that the results of antibody testing are important as they have profound implications when considering measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

5. Leslie et al.. (2020, June 5). This cow's antibodies could be the newest weapon against COVID-19. Retrieved from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/cow-s-antibodies-could-be-newest-weapon-against-covid-19

This report briefly explains the advantages and reservations about the cow antibodies that have been recently developed, which can be used to introduce a new approach to antibody therapy against Covid-19.

6. Christensen, J. (2020, June 2). First human trial of potential antibody treatment for Covid-19 begins. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/eli-lilly-antibody-therapy-human-trial-covid-19/index.html

This news article reports the first human trial of antibody therapy that has just begun, and explains the progress of current efforts on developing antibody therapy. Though the results are yet to come out, it can be linked to future uses of antibodies in the treatment of Covid-19. It is great to refer to this in the ending section of the research in order to point out potential directions into which antibody testing and research can go for fighting Covid-19.