Scientists at Colorado State University’s Infectious Disease Research Center are now studying COVID-19 antibodies and their possible effects on patients infected with the disease. The Food and Drug Administration recently authorized convalescent plasma research as a way to treat COVID-19.
Izabela Ragan, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of biomedical sciences at CSU, wrote in an email to The Collegian that antibodies are proteins the immune system produces to fight off invaders like bacteria and viruses. Ragan wrote that antibodies will find, attach to and stop the invader’s ability to replicate and spread.
“Once bound to the antigen, antibodies activate other aspects of the immune response to help destroy the invader,” Ragan wrote. “Our immune system produces several types of antibodies like IgG, IgA and IgM; each has a unique job, but they work together to attack.”
