Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Apr 1;130(4):1545-1548.
doi: 10.1172/JCI138003.

The convalescent sera option for containing COVID-19

Arturo Casadevall  1 , Liise-Anne Pirofski  2
Affiliations

The convalescent sera option for containing COVID-19

Arturo Casadevall et al. J Clin Invest. .
No abstract available

Keywords: COVID-19.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Schematic of the use of convalescent sera for COVID-19.
An individual who is sick with COVID-19 and recovers has blood drawn and screened for virus-neutralizing antibodies. Following identification of those with high titers of neutralizing antibody, serum containing these virus-neutralizing antibodies can be administered in a prophylactic manner to prevent infection in high-risk cases, such as vulnerable individuals with underlying medical conditions, health care providers, and individuals with exposure to confirmed cases of COVID-19. Additionally, convalescent serum could potentially be used in individuals with clinical disease to reduce symptoms and mortality. The efficacy of these approaches is not known, but historical experience suggests that convalescent sera may be more effective in preventing disease than in the treatment of established disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Casadevall A, Scharff MD. Return to the past: the case for antibody-based therapies in infectious diseases. Clin Infect Dis. 1995;21(1):150–161. doi: 10.1093/clinids/21.1.150. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Casadevall A, Dadachova E, Pirofski LA. Passive antibody therapy for infectious diseases. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2004;2(9):695–703. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro974. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang JS, et al. A serological survey on neutralizing antibody titer of SARS convalescent sera. J Med Virol. 2005;77(2):147–150. doi: 10.1002/jmv.20431. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beigel JH, et al. Safety and tolerability of a novel, polyclonal human anti-MERS coronavirus antibody produced from transchromosomic cattle: a phase 1 randomised, double-blind, single-dose-escalation study. Lancet Infect Dis. 2018;18(4):410–418. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30002-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Robbins JB, Schneerson R, Szu SC. Perspective: hypothesis: serum IgG antibody is sufficient to confer protection against infectious diseases by inactivating the inoculum. J Infect Dis. 1995;171(6):1387–1398. doi: 10.1093/infdis/171.6.1387. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances