Shanghai experts: SARS-CoV-2 vaccine reaction can worsen covid

Reporter : He Yating / Editor: Ming Xuan / Publisher : New Tang Dynasty Television

Ref : https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/08/30/a102929880.html

Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

 As the pandemic rages there are high expectations for related vaccines. However, the safety of the vaccine itself is not optimistic. This week, Shanghai experts disclosed to Lu Media that their latest research found that COVID-19 does have antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), and the proportion is not low, which means that the immune response of the SARS-CoV-2 (covi, in short) vaccine may be affected and can cause covid to worsen.

The Chinese mainland media CBN website reported on  30 August that after the media’s exclusive verification, an expert from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center recently revealed to the media that they found in their research that the immune response of the covi vaccine may indeed cause disease aggravation. 

"Our latest research has found that the covi ADE phenomenon does exist, and the proportion is not low. The relevant research results are waiting to be released." The expert said frankly, "SARS-CoV-2 has the risk of ADE and will pose certain challenges to the vaccine, but it still depends on it, the antigen used by the specific vaccine."

The report said that in the development of vaccines, people are most worried about the occurrence of ADE. Because if the ADE phenomenon occurs, it means that after some people are vaccinated, their own immune response will cause the disease to worsen, and there are still no in-depth research results about the covi ADE in the world.

Just last week, Hong Kong, Europe, and the United States have all announced cases of re-infection of covi. Among them, a man in Nevada, the United States, was infected with covi twice only 48 days apart, and the symptoms during the second infection more serious.

In response to this situation, Jin Dongyan, a virologist and professor in the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Hong Kong School of Medicine, told China Business News, “The patient’s positive detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the body may mean that the severe illness is caused by the immune response itself and there is a risk of ADE. The antibody immune response may have caused damage to the lung tissue."

Jin Dongyan pointed out that the emergence of reinfection cases is a warning to vaccine development, which means that some people may still be infected with covi after being vaccinated, or even develop severe illness. He emphasized, "Whether this will happen, how high it is, which vaccinators may have ADE, and what kind of adverse consequences will it cause? These questions need to be solved in the third phase of the vaccine clinical trial."

It is worth noting that this report by China Business News has been withdrawn, making the outside world unavoidably question whether the media has been secretly pressured by the Chinese Communist government.

So what exactly is the ADE phenomenon?

Simply put, when people are stimulated by an antigen (pathogen or vaccine) for the first time, neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibodies will be produced in the body. Generally speaking, neutralizing antibodies can prevent viruses from entering human cells or fusion and excretion through "neutralization", and are protective to the human body; but in some special cases, pathogen-specific antibodies can promote pathological processes and lead to antibody dependence enhancement (ADE) phenomenon. Instead, due to the activation of alveolar macrophages, acute lung injury appears, which makes the patient’s disease more serious. People colloquially call this counteracting antibody "non-neutralizing antibody".

It is understood that as early as 21 April this year, two scientists from the Department of Immunobiology of Yale University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute published an article in the journal Nature Reviews Immunology, warning SARS-CoV-2 vaccine developers should pay attention to the ADE phenomenon of covi, and introduce the relevant mechanisms in detail.

At that time, when medical experts were studying the antibody response of covid patients, they found that higher titers of anti-N IgM and IgG at any time point after the onset of symptoms were associated with a worse prognosis of the disease. In addition, higher titers of anti-S, anti-N IgG and IgM are associated with worse clinical indexes and increasing age. These studies have shown that antibodies have potentially harmful effects on certain patients. Therefore, experts are calling for governments to fully consider the role of ADE when evaluating the safety of covi vaccine candidates.