(Snippets from the frontline)
COVID-19: The magnificent human antibody machine
Immunology is one of many medical frontiers we have yet to fully understand.
One poorly understood question: How does the human body produce an antibody that goes to war and defeats a virus or bacteria?
We know our bodies have an innate ability to defensively make antibodies, and apparently in those patients exposed to COVID-19, we can identify them after infection has taken place. These antibodies act aggressively to destroy the virus, most of the time successfully.
One experimental modality being tried is “convalescent plasma transfusion”, using serum with antibodies from recovering patients.
As a scientist with limited knowledge in this field, but extrapolating further: If it is possible to identify antibodies, why can’t we also isolate and concentrate them, then inject them into an ill patient? Furthermore, what about cloning the antibody through stem cells creating an antiviral pill? Is there any logic to this rant?
Presently there is no treatment for coronavirus, but the magnificent human antibody machine is available and could be harnessed.
Let’s see how quickly we mobilize our collective logic and bring it forward into battle.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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