Paula galinsky
04/04/2021 13:51
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 04/04/2021 13:51
The world seeks to be protected against the coronavirus.
Along this path, they began to talk about different types of antibodies and methodologies to test the level we have in the body.
It also talks about the immunological memory that is generated after contracting the infection or after giving any of the vaccines.
The contagion of President Alberto Fernández, vaccinated with the two doses of Sputnik V, also rekindled the debate and doubts about the levels of protection.
Clarín
spoke with specialists about the forms of defense that our body can have today against Covid 19 and how to confirm if we do have any of them.
There are two types of antibodies.
"One of them is usually generated after the disease has passed through or after vaccines that have the inactivated virus are given, as in the case of Sinopharm," explains Lautaro de Vedia, an infectologist at
the Muñiz Hospital
and former president. of the Argentine Society of Infectology.
In these cases, what is sought when testing is the presence of antibodies against the
nucleoprotein or protein N,
which should have been generated by the body.
However, it is not the only thing that can be tried to trace through a blood test.
There are also
anti-spike antibodies
(or against the coronavirus spike), which "are specific for people immunized with those vaccines that aim to prevent the spicules of the coronavirus from joining with cell receptors in order to prevent the disease. ”, Says Arnaldo Casiró, head of the Infectious Diseases service at Hospital Álvarez.
Such is the case of those who have received the Sputnik V, Covishield / AstraZeneca and
Pfizer or Modern
a
vaccines
, among others.
“The virus enters the cell through the spike, that spike works as a key.
For this reason, this type of antibodies makes the organism know the combination of that key so as not to allow it to enter the cell.
It is a different form of defense, which does not have so much to do with attacking the enemy (as with the N protein) but with blocking their entry into the cell (spike protein) ”, warns Casiró.
In both cases, we are talking about a study on
IgG immunoglobulin
, although the differentiation between the N protein and that associated with the spike protein (S1 and RBD) is key to confirm whether or not one of these types of antibodies is available.
The doctor should clarify, when ordering the blood test,
to which type it refers.
“In many cases the person approaches privately and without a warrant.
Sometimes he is asked if he wants that information because he was given a vaccine or because he had the disease, although this does not always happen so it is important to clarify it ”, Casiró remarks.
Faced with both scenarios - immunization by vaccines or after infection - the
immunological memory
is also added
,
which is the body's ability to be attentive, recognize the virus if it enters and generate antibodies more quickly to act before the infection progresses and
compromises the organism.
“A patient who never had the virus usually takes between 7 and 10 days to generate antibodies.
Immunological memory is a learning that remains for the immunized person and allows him to react ”, contributes De Vedia, who says that the levels of immunological memory can also be measured although" it is not a routine study ".
"There are studies that show that
those who had the disease tend to have high levels of immunological memory
or activation of memory T lymphocytes and that these good results are sustained over time," says Eduardo López, infectologist member of the expert committee that advises to the President and head of the Department of Medicine of the Gutiérrez Hospital.
And he adds: "There are still not too many details about what happens in relation to how long the antibodies remain in the people who got them."
In as much, it emphasizes that "the immunological memory is poor in the cases of vaccines with inactivated virus like the one of Sinopharm and Sinovac".
GS
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