Chris Mok’s Work On Cross-Reactive Antibody Response Between SARS-CoV-2 And SARS-CoV Infections

Published In Cell Reports And featured On EurekAlert!

EurekAlert!, operated by AAAS, has featured a publication from Chris Mok's team on Cross-Reactive Antibody Response Between SARS-CoV-2 And SARS-CoV Infections published in Cell Reports.

Patients infected with either severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) or SARS-CoV-2 produce antibodies that bind to the other coronavirus, but the cross-reactive antibodies are not cross protective, at least in cell-culture experiments, researchers report May 17 in the journal Cell Reports. It remains unclear whether such antibodies offer cross protection in the human body or potentiate disease. The findings suggest that more research is needed to identify parts of the virus that are critical for inducing a cross-protective immune response.

"Since coronavirus outbreaks are likely to continue to pose global health risks in the future, the possibility of developing a cross-protective vaccine against multiple coronaviruses has been considered," says co-senior study author Chris Mok of the University of Hong Kong. "Our findings, albeit limited at present, would suggest that broadly cross-neutralizing antibodies to coronaviruses might not be commonly produced by the human immune repertoire. Moving forward, monoclonal antibody discovery and characterization will be crucial to the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the short-term, as well as a cross-protective coronavirus vaccine in the long term. [...]"

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