With the spotlight on vaccines against COVID-19, Augusta University is part of a national study to look at the effectiveness of the immune response those vaccines hope to create.
While all of the attention is focused on a vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19, a new national study that includes Augusta University will look at the antibodies that could protect against the virus, how long they last and how much is needed for immunity.
The study will focus on front-line workers, those who are potentially the most exposed to the pandemic such as health care workers and law enforcement.
It will include those who have already been infected with the virus, known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS CoV-2. The national study will be known as the SARS2 SeroPrevalence and Respiratory Tract Assessment clinical study or SPARTA. In addition to AU and Augusta, it will include 6,000 people recruited at the University of Georgia at Athens, St. Jude Children’ Research Hospital in Memphis, and the University of California, Los Angeles. It is funded by a $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Immunology, said Dr. Ravindra Kolhe, who will be the principal investigator for AU. The study still must get final approval from the Institutional Review Board at AU.
Among those high-risk workers, the study in Augusta is recruiting two groups, about 1,000 that have already been infected and 500 who have not. They will be followed regularly, with those that are negative being tested every two weeks, to see if they become infected and what happens when they are or if those who were previously infected become reinfected. That reinfection question is a crucial part of the study and is why they are collecting blood and saliva or nasal swabs regularly, Kolhe said.
The researchers are looking to see when neutralizing antibodies form, “how long do they stay and how long do they prevent you from reinfection?” he said. “That’s the question.”
The study will run analyses to see not only that the antibodies formed but “the quantity and quality of the antibody” and how particular immune cells are forming those antibodies, Kolhe said.
“At this moment, our idea is to understand the naturally occurring antibody production and how effective that is,” he said.
The study seeks to understand fundamental questions that vaccine makers have already assumed about the antibodies and could help vaccine making in the future, Kolhe said. For instance, it may provide some clue as to how long the vaccines would be effective, he said.
It could also help researchers understand another problem that has puzzled doctors: whether people who are infected with only mild symptoms or no symptoms form enough antibodies afterward for immunity, Kolhe said. For instance, does immunity require exposure to a certain amount of virus for a period of time in order to train the immune system to create the neutralizing antibodies, he said,
“This is also going to help us understand that particular aspect of the disease spectrum,” Kolhe said.
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