ISGlobal Studies Coronavirus Immune Responses

The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a host institution of SDSN Health for All, has led a new study on the body's immune response to coronaviruses, including both SARS-CoV-2 and those responsible for common colds. Researchers looked at pre-pandemic blood samples and the antibodies contained therein, and found that some could respond to the SARS-CoV-2 N protein. This indicates that there is some degree of cross-reactivity between the coronaviruses which cause the common cold and the novel coronavirus. An important implication of this finding is that seroprevalence studies should not be based on these antibodies. However, the group also identified a region of the N protein (known as the C-terminus) that is specific to SARS-CoV-2 and differs greatly from the common cold coronaviruses; this offers a solution for more accurate seroprevalence studies.

A summary of the findings is available on the ISGlobal website , and the full paper is available from the journal Translational Research (open source).