Men, who are more susceptible to coronavirus than women, also produce more antibodies in their plasma.
- Data collection on infected patients by the UK Health Service found that male patients have more antibodies in their plasma than females
- This presence of antibodies does not automatically mean that men are better protected than women.
Women have a better immune response to infectious diseases than men. A reality recently explained by Jean-Charles Guéry, researcher at the Physiopathology Center of the University of Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier, with Inserm and CNRS, and his team who described the innate genetic mechanism in the immune response to HIV. Asked by Why doctor to know if these conclusions can be transposed to the coronavirus, he confirms: “there are fewer women affected by severe forms of Covid-19.”
A higher level of antibodies
The duality of response to Covid-19 infections according to gender, where men are more likely to be contaminated than women, is confirmed in the production of antibodies to protect against new contamination. This time, it is the men who are better protected since they seem to produce more antibodies than the women. This conclusion results from a collection of data from the NHS, the British health service, which is currently harvesting plasma from convalescent patients for a treatment trial against the coronavirus. They found that 43% of male donors have sufficient levels of antibodies against Covid-19 to be eligible for the trial, compared to only 29% of women.
This observation is mainly explained by the greater sensitivity of men to the coronavirus, leading them to develop more antibodies. However, the presence of more antibodies does not automatically mean that men are better protected than women. The potential immunity brought about by these antibodies remains uncertain, as does their lifespan. In addition, other mechanisms seem able to protect us against a possible new infection.
Blood plasma, a possible treatment
Blood plasma brings hope and is being studied as a treatment option to treat patients with Covid-19. American researchers are looking into plasma blood transfusion to help the immune system of patients fight the virus. Their first study, which has some limitations since it did not use a placebo to compare results, showed that only 1% of patients who received blood plasma transfusions had serious complications. Further research is ongoing to confirm these findings.
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