2024-09-12 09:15:37
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is suffered by children under six months of age. It presents itself with symptoms such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia every year in the world it affects more than 33 million children, it causes almost 4 million hospitalizations and kills more than one hundred thousand children under the age of five.
In the case of Argentina, it causes a third of the deaths of children under the age of one every year.
In addition, receiving this bacteria can predispose to the development of frequent bronchospasms and asthma.
As it is spread by direct contact or through respiratory secretions that are spread when coughing or breathing, preventive measures to deal with it include hand washing, sanitizing, respiratory areas and covering your mouth when coughing.
In recent years, two pharmaceutical products have been added to these procedures: the vaccine given to the pregnant woman between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy and the transfer of viruses to the baby to protect it in the first six months of life (it ends in let it be incorporated into the national calendar by the Ministry of Health of Argentina), and a monoclonal antibody, which can be used from birth.
To assess the effects of these viruses, experts from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET) of Argentina and the Children’s Hospital Ricardo Gutiérrez (HNRG) of Buenos Aires conducted a study on a population of nearly sixty infants. The result was published in Ajesara newspaper.
The new study is the work of a team led by Eduardo López, Head of the Department of Medicine at HNRG. The laboratory studies are coordinated by CONICET scientist Laura Talarico and the clinical registry is coordinated by Martín Ferolla, pediatric physician and infectious disease specialist at the hospital.
The study included 58 previously healthy patients under one year old, who were infected with RSV and were admitted to the HNRG between 2017 and 2019, a period in which the vaccine against RSV in pregnant women was not yet available. The average age of the children enrolled was three months. What experts want to evaluate is the immune response to a specific protein of the virus, which has two opposites or states.
“RSV has two proteins on its surface, the fusion protein (F) and the binding protein (G), which are the main targets responsible for the production of viruses. The F protein has two transitions or states, pre-folding (pre-F) and post-folding (post-F), which are obtained during virus infection when the virus is inserted through the host cell’s membrane. ” explained Talarico. “Our goal was to evaluate serum IgG against pre-F and post-F sequences of the RSV F fusion protein and its association with life-threatening RSV disease in previously healthy children. “We compared the levels of antibodies linked to each of the classifications when admitted to the hospital to evaluate to what extent they protect children against the signs of the virus and what their evolution is in the recovery phase. “
In recent studies, Eduardo López explained, it was determined that specific antibodies against pre-type F, which is the main component of the recently approved vaccine for pregnant women, are more protective against RSV infection. “The use of monoclonal antibodies against pre-F, such as Nirseimab, used in newborns, also provides a significant level of protection against RSV infection and hospitalization,” said López.
Florencia Bonnin, doctoral fellow at the Fund for Science and Technology Research (FONCYT ) and co-author of the work. “We investigated whether there was any association between the levels of pre-F and post-F specific antibodies and neutralizing viruses with disease severity, patient age and viral load. Children with life-threatening diseases, who require intensive care and need the help of mechanical ventilation are compared with those who, although they are in the hospital, have a better evolution,” doctor Martín Ferolla added.
Laura Talarico and Florencia Bonín work in the parlor. Photo: research team CC BY 2.5 AR).
From the study, the scientists confirmed that the levels of specific antibodies against pre-F showed the ability to eliminate, but, contrary to what was expected, they did not protect against the dangerous RSV disease. -chance; “That is to say, antibody levels were similar in both major groups. Similarly, we found that children under two months of age show antibodies against pre-F at a high level of the disease, but these antibodies, transferred to the child from an unvaccinated mother, do not protect against dangerous diseases. Furthermore, we did not observe a relationship between RSV-specific antibody levels and the amount of virus in the nasal secretions,” said Bonnin.
With this result, the researchers suggest that protection against severe RSV disease will depend not only on the antibody response but on other factors of the immune system. “It is important to emphasize that this study was carried out before the mother’s vaccination, so the levels of antibodies that were at the highest level of the disease in the children in the study came from mothers who were not vaccinated. We observed in infants levels ten times lower than those reported in the children of vaccinated mothers,” explained Dr. Talarico.
In this way, López concluded that “a complete preventive strategy is necessary that includes maternal vaccination and the use of monoclonal antibodies against the pre-F protein in the newborn, to avoid severe diseases, since the viruses that comes from the mother’s womb. infection is not enough to protect against a serious disease.”
It should be noted that this work was done in collaboration with the VRC (Vaccine Research Center), which belongs to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States, which provides pre-F viruses. and post-F of RSV and put tests. (Source: CONICET. CC BY 2.5 AR)
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