Say you survived a certain disease,
Your body has created a set of anti bodies that hell with that certain disease, now, if you donate blood, will said antibodies help a person who has never contracted said disease?
(sorry for the poor english)
In: Biology
This can be used to try and save a life but the benefits are short lived. It’s something that might be considered if a patient is very ill and might die otherwise. The antibodies in the donor plasma can help fight the disease but it doesn’t transfer their immunity to the new patient. It’s more like using their antibodies like an anti viral.
It’s called passive immunity and it’s been studied and used for awhile now. I don’t believe it’s used that often unless it’s a dire situation… But since we don’t have much time (vaccines take 12-18months to create) it’s one of the ways the doctors are attempting to treat COVID 19 with. They are taking blood donations from people who’ve recovered from COVID 19.
From the blood, they will isolate the plasma, which is part of the blood that contains antibodies, etc. In a process called “convalescent plasma therapy,” their antibodies will be transferred to others to protect them against getting infected ,or to strengthen the immune systems of those who are sick already.
I’m not a medical professional though, so I’ll let someone with medical background jump in here.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/27/coronavirus-serum-plasma-treatment/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/27/coronavirus-serum-plasma-treatment/)
Works only in [plasma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood plasma) donations but not by regular blood transfusion I think. Or it’s more effective that way.
It’s used for many known diseases – [Here](https://www.grifolsplasma.com/en/plasma-donor/why-donate)
Thats exactly what snake antivenin is.
Small quantities of the toxin (snake venom, spider venom, etc) are injected into a horse and its serum containing antibodies is collected.
The serum is purified and injected into a snake bite victim. That lasts for a short while.
sort of. Usually when you do a blood transfusion, the plasma (part of blood that contains antibodies) are separates from the red blood cells. So the packed red blood cells that gets transfused has very little usable antibodies.
If you’re transfusion plasma, then yes, you can acquire passive immunity, however, that passive immunity does not last forever. You may temporarily become immune to certain disease, but once those antibodies are gone, you are no longer immune. That said, during the freezing and thawing process of the plasma, most of the antibodies are destroyed.
Latest Answers