Version 1
: Received: 9 May 2023 / Approved: 10 May 2023 / Online: 10 May 2023 (04:49:51 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 16 May 2023 / Approved: 17 May 2023 / Online: 17 May 2023 (04:33:54 CEST)
Tatzber, F.; Wonisch, W.; Resch, U.; Strohmaier, W.; Lindschinger, M.; Mörkl, S.; Cvirn, G. Thinking beyond Vaccination: Promising Add-On Strategies to Active Immunization and Vaccination in Pandemics—A Mini-Review. Viruses2023, 15, 1372.
Tatzber, F.; Wonisch, W.; Resch, U.; Strohmaier, W.; Lindschinger, M.; Mörkl, S.; Cvirn, G. Thinking beyond Vaccination: Promising Add-On Strategies to Active Immunization and Vaccination in Pandemics—A Mini-Review. Viruses 2023, 15, 1372.
Tatzber, F.; Wonisch, W.; Resch, U.; Strohmaier, W.; Lindschinger, M.; Mörkl, S.; Cvirn, G. Thinking beyond Vaccination: Promising Add-On Strategies to Active Immunization and Vaccination in Pandemics—A Mini-Review. Viruses2023, 15, 1372.
Tatzber, F.; Wonisch, W.; Resch, U.; Strohmaier, W.; Lindschinger, M.; Mörkl, S.; Cvirn, G. Thinking beyond Vaccination: Promising Add-On Strategies to Active Immunization and Vaccination in Pandemics—A Mini-Review. Viruses 2023, 15, 1372.
Abstract
There is little doubt that final victories over pandemics, such as COVID-19, are attributed to herd immunity, either through post-disease convalescence or active immunization of a high percentage of the world's population with vaccines, demonstrating protection from infection and transmission, being available in large quantities and at reasonable prices. However, it is assumable that humans with immune defects or immune suppression, e.g., as a consequence of allograft transplantation, cannot be immunized actively nor produce sufficient immune responses to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections. These subjects desperately need other strategies, such as sophisticated protection measures and active immunization.
Hypertonic salt solutions attack vulnerable core areas of viruses, i.e., salt denatures surface proteins and thus prohibits virus penetration of somatic cells. It has to be ensured that somatic proteins are not affected by denaturation regarding this unspecific virus protection. Impregnating filtering facepieces with hypertonic salt solutions is a straightforward way to inactivate viruses and other potential pathogens. As a result of the contact of salt crystals on the filtering facepiece, these pathogens become denatured and inactivated almost quantitatively. Such a strategy could be easily applied to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and other ones that may occur in the future. Another possible tool to fight the COVID-19 pandemic is passive immunization with antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, preferably from human origin. Such antibodies can be harvested from patients´ human sera, which have successfully survived their SARS-CoV-2 infection. The disadvantage of a rapid decrease of the immunoglobulin titer after infection ends can be overcome by immortalizing antibody-producing B-cells via fusion with, e.g., mouse myeloma cells. The resulting monoclonal antibodies are then of human origin and available in, at least theoretically, unlimited amounts. Finally, dry blood spots are a valuable tool for surveilling the population´s immunity.
Keywords
hypertonic salt solution; impregnation; filtering face piece; human monoclonal antibody; dry blood spot
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Public Health and Health Services
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.