There has been a lot of messages on WhatsApp regarding what was supposedly been told bythe Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier.
Various news sources present with various interpretations (or rather misinterpretations) of what he said. Part of it could be due to the 'Lost in Translation" issue because the original possibly was in French.
According to what I read, he was apparently worrying about ADE (Antibody Dependent Enhancement). In fact, many scientists in Immunology, during the last three weeks had similar concerns.
ADE is a mechanism where antibodies generated during an immune response recognize and bind to a pathogen, but they are unable to prevent infection.
Then these antibodies act as a “Trojan horse,” allowing the pathogen to get into cells. There are instances of ADE happening before. Two notable ones are the Dengue and Measles.
With Measles it was vaccine caused. Some of the kids vaccinated got a rash, fevet and pneumonia. This was a ADE incident. This was in the 1960's era.
Later on the vaccine was changed and there were no more incidents of ADE related to the measles vaccine till today. .
In the case with Dengue the scenario is different because Dengue appears in four forms. These are called "serotypes" and this caused the ADE effect with having the disease itself.
When a person is infected by one serotype of dengue virus, they develop antibodies, against that serotype. But, if that person is infected with a second serotype, the antibodies from the first infection may bind to the virus and actually increase the virus’s ability to enter cells, resulting in ADE and causing a severe form of the disease, called dengue hemorrhagic fever.
In 2016, a dengue virus vaccine was designed to protect against all four serotypes of the virus. The hope was that by inducing immune responses to all four serotypes at once, the vaccine could circumvent the issues related to ADE following disease with dengue virus. The vaccine was given to 800,000 children in the Philippines. Fourteen vaccinated children died after encountering dengue virus in the community.... The antibody responses that were from the vaccine was not capable of neutralizing the natural virus.This stopped the Dengue vaccine now if given, only to those above 10 years and already had Dengue.
But there has been NO reported ADE incidents with those who have been infected with Covid 19 or other corona viruses. Also clinical trials with animals have found no link to ADE. However, no one can say this with absolute certainty.
Also note that several vaccines have been quite successful where multiple types of virus are in existence.
eg: Vaccines against polio (3 types), rotavirus (5 types), and human papillomavirus (9 types). - all have worked without any drama.
The ADE effect is due to what's known as the Original Antigenic Sin, also known as Antigenic Imprinting or the Hoskins effect.
To explain in simple terms, the first time we encounter a foreign pathogen, let's say common influenza our body immune system develops an Imprint for this. The next time we get infected, we make the antibodies straight away. The problem is that the influenza does not remain same. Over our life, it changes and many strains will come to exist.
When we are infected with influenza the next time, if the strain is the same as the first one - then no problem - antibodies are generated and we overcome the infection. But if it's a different strain, our immune system response will be weak and we are open for an infection.
The same effect can also happen with vaccines.... So if we are vaccinated with one variant of Covid, we are not so sure about how the immunity works for a different variant. This is a concern and at this moment no one can say for sure on how Imprinting will play a part with Covid19.
Various news sources present with various interpretations (or rather misinterpretations) of what he said. Part of it could be due to the 'Lost in Translation" issue because the original possibly was in French.
According to what I read, he was apparently worrying about ADE (Antibody Dependent Enhancement). In fact, many scientists in Immunology, during the last three weeks had similar concerns.
ADE is a mechanism where antibodies generated during an immune response recognize and bind to a pathogen, but they are unable to prevent infection.
Then these antibodies act as a “Trojan horse,” allowing the pathogen to get into cells. There are instances of ADE happening before. Two notable ones are the Dengue and Measles.
With Measles it was vaccine caused. Some of the kids vaccinated got a rash, fevet and pneumonia. This was a ADE incident. This was in the 1960's era.
Later on the vaccine was changed and there were no more incidents of ADE related to the measles vaccine till today. .
In the case with Dengue the scenario is different because Dengue appears in four forms. These are called "serotypes" and this caused the ADE effect with having the disease itself.
When a person is infected by one serotype of dengue virus, they develop antibodies, against that serotype. But, if that person is infected with a second serotype, the antibodies from the first infection may bind to the virus and actually increase the virus’s ability to enter cells, resulting in ADE and causing a severe form of the disease, called dengue hemorrhagic fever.
In 2016, a dengue virus vaccine was designed to protect against all four serotypes of the virus. The hope was that by inducing immune responses to all four serotypes at once, the vaccine could circumvent the issues related to ADE following disease with dengue virus. The vaccine was given to 800,000 children in the Philippines. Fourteen vaccinated children died after encountering dengue virus in the community.... The antibody responses that were from the vaccine was not capable of neutralizing the natural virus.This stopped the Dengue vaccine now if given, only to those above 10 years and already had Dengue.
But there has been NO reported ADE incidents with those who have been infected with Covid 19 or other corona viruses. Also clinical trials with animals have found no link to ADE. However, no one can say this with absolute certainty.
Also note that several vaccines have been quite successful where multiple types of virus are in existence.
eg: Vaccines against polio (3 types), rotavirus (5 types), and human papillomavirus (9 types). - all have worked without any drama.
The ADE effect is due to what's known as the Original Antigenic Sin, also known as Antigenic Imprinting or the Hoskins effect.
To explain in simple terms, the first time we encounter a foreign pathogen, let's say common influenza our body immune system develops an Imprint for this. The next time we get infected, we make the antibodies straight away. The problem is that the influenza does not remain same. Over our life, it changes and many strains will come to exist.
When we are infected with influenza the next time, if the strain is the same as the first one - then no problem - antibodies are generated and we overcome the infection. But if it's a different strain, our immune system response will be weak and we are open for an infection.
The same effect can also happen with vaccines.... So if we are vaccinated with one variant of Covid, we are not so sure about how the immunity works for a different variant. This is a concern and at this moment no one can say for sure on how Imprinting will play a part with Covid19.
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