#CellBasedImmunoassays

[elainaledoyen]

Several cell-based assays are now being used to determine the correlates of protection in groups and individuals with symptomatic COVID-19 immunity and vaccine reactions. The cell-based assays have demonstrated high levels of concordance with living as well as pseudotyped virions of the novel coronavirus. For a return to normalcy and the resumption of economic activity across the globe, national borders will need to be reopened and businesses will have to start functioning as before. However, for this to happen, safe and effective vaccines, as well as other treatment modalities, will have to be developed and implemented as soon as possible. Hence, scientists need to be able to appraise the factors that determine protective immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, also known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome 2. This is because the SARS-CoV-2 is known to be a major causative agent of COVID-19.

[elainaledoyen]

While much of the focus on treating COVID-19 and preventing its spread has been on antibodies, emerging research is indicating that T cells of the adaptive immune system are equally important to not only disease resistance and vaccine development but also to epidemiological tracking. Researchers at Karolinska Institute assert that recent T cell immunity testing done in a study there reveals that the number of COVID-19 cases is about double what estimates made based on earlier seroprevalence antibody testing had indicated. Results just released from a T cell immunity study from Germany suggests that perhaps 80% of the population may carry COVID-19 resistance acquired from exposure to some of the other four coronaviruses that cause common colds. If correct, such results have clear implications for achievement of more accurate estimates of both infection lethality rates and of timeframes for achieving herd immunity with and without a safe and effective vaccine. The high degree of COVID‑19 resistance in those too young to benefit from either antibodies or T cells is also discussed.