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Virus Mimicking Antibodies May Explain Long Haul COVID-19, Rare Vaccine Side Effects - SciTechDaily

Virus Mimicking Antibodies May Explain Long Haul COVID-19, Rare Vaccine Side Effects - SciTechDaily

Virus Mimicking Antibodies May Explain Long Haul COVID-19, Rare Vaccine Side Effects - SciTechDaily
Nov 27, 2021 1 min, 57 secs

These symptoms, known as “long COVID,” and the vaccines’ off-target side effects are thought to be due to a patient’s immune response. .

In an article published on November 24, 2021, in The New England Journal of Medicine, the UC Davis Vice Chair of Research and Distinguished Professor of Dermatology and Internal Medicine William Murphy and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School Dan Longo present a possible explanation to the diverse immune responses to the virus and the vaccines. .

It describes a cascade in which the immune system initially launches protective antibody responses to an antigen (like a virus).

These same protective antibodies later can trigger a new antibody response toward themselves, leading to their disappearance over time. .

These secondary antibodies, called anti-idiotype antibodies, can bind to and deplete the initial protective antibody responses.

The immune system responds by producing protective antibodies that bind to the invading virus, blocking or neutralizing its effects. .

As a form of down-regulation, these protective antibodies can also cause immune responses with anti-idiotype antibodies.

Over time, these anti-idiotype responses can clear the initial protective antibodies and potentially result in limited efficacy of antibody-based therapies. .

“A fascinating aspect of the newly formed anti-idiotype antibodies is that some of their structures can be a mirror image of the original antigen and act like it in binding to the same receptors that the viral antigen binds.

“Given the critical functions and wide distribution of ACE2 receptors on numerous cell types, it would be important to determine if these regulatory immune responses could be responsible for some of the off-target or long-lasting effects being reported,” Murphy commented.

As for COVID-19 vaccines, the primary antigen used is the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein!

According to Murphy and Longo, current research studies on antibody responses to these vaccines mainly focus on the initial protective responses and virus-neutralizing efficacy, rather than other long-term aspects. .

This need follows to what it takes to keep the protective responses going, as well as to the potential unwanted side effects of both the infection and the different SARS-CoV-2 vaccine types, especially as boosting is now applied,” Murphy said.

Reference: “A Possible Role for Anti-idiotype Antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Vaccination” by William J.

Longo, M.D., 24 November 2021, New England Journal of Medicine

November 25, 2021

November 25, 2021

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