MADRID 7 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
New research from Emory University (United States) provides a more accurate prediction of the severity of COVID-19 that can be found by looking at autoantibodies in the nasal cavity, leading to more personalized treatment plans.
For high-risk people, this could provide critical information to inform immediate treatment options, including rapidly taking medications like Paxlovid within a week of symptoms to mitigate a severe response.
The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, followed 125 patients with varying levels of COVID-19 (from mild to severe) for almost two years. They tracked antibodies in both the blood and nasal airways and found that more than 70% of people with mild or moderate COVID-19 developed certain autoantibodies (usually a sign of disease) in the nose that were surprisingly related. with fewer symptoms, better antiviral immunity and a faster recovery.
The findings suggest that the presence of autoantibodies in the nose may play a protective role and help regulate the immune system to prevent excessive inflammation and fight the virus more effectively.
“In general, autoantibodies are associated with pathology and a negative prognosis, causing increased inflammation that would indicate more severe disease,” says Eliver Ghosn, lead author of the paper and a faculty member at the Lowance Center for Human Immunology. and the Emory Vaccine Center.
“What’s interesting about our findings is that with COVID-19, it’s the opposite. Nasal autoantibodies appeared shortly after infection, and they targeted an important inflammatory molecule produced by the patient’s cells. These autoantibodies attached to the molecule , probably to prevent excessive inflammation, and they disappeared as people recovered, suggesting that the body uses them to maintain balance.”
Previous studies on COVID-19 patients have suggested that autoantibodies in the blood predispose them to potentially fatal disease. However, these studies often neglect the nose, the actual site of infection. The new study suggests that the immune responses generated in the nose against the virus differ from those generated in the blood.
In short, nasal autoantibodies equal protection, while autoantibodies found in the blood equal severity. “The key to this puzzle was looking directly at the site of infection, in the nose, instead of the blood,” Ghosn points out.
“While autoantibodies in the blood were associated with a poor prognosis, producing them only in the nose soon after infection is associated with efficient recovery,” he notes.
To enable more precise measurements of antibodies produced locally at the nasal site of infection, Ghosn’s lab developed a new biotech tool called FlowBEAT to quantify different types of antibodies in nasal cavities and other biological samples, which could soon have implications for testing for other respiratory viruses, such as influenza or RSV.
Next, the researchers want to discover whether this surprising mechanism for controlling COVID-19 infection in the nose also plays a role in other respiratory infections such as influenza and RSV. “If this nasal autoantibody response turns out to be a common mechanism to protect us against other viral infections, it may be a paradigm shift in the way we study protective immunity,” Ghosn notes.
“We will interpret autoantibodies through an innovative lens, hoping to inspire new lines of research and better therapeutic options for common respiratory infections.”
