Antibody cocktail nun also in Berlin
Despite the apocalyptic numbers from numerous political representatives, there is also a good therapy option for high-risk patients in Berlin if they test positive for the corona virus: A spokeswoman for the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians Berlin told the Berliner Zeitung. According to the current state of knowledge, antibody therapies are highly tolerated.
“For patients who die in the early phase of a Covid 19 infection and for whom a severe course of the disease and inpatient treatment can be expected due to certain risk factors, the administration of monoclonal antibodies has proven to be a favorable therapy option”, so die spokeswoman. Therapy should be started at short notice as the disease progresses, if possible within five days after a PCR test is available. Seven practices and seven clinics are currently accredited in Berlin for treatment with monoclonal antibody therapy. Treatment is given on site via a single infusion, which is used to give the drug for about an hour.
Antibody therapy is intended for patients over 50 years of age who have high risk factors for a severe course of the disease or for hospitalization.
The KV names the possible risk factors as follows: “Obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, muscular dystrophy or comparable neuromuscular disease, liver cirrhosis or another chronic liver disease, chronic kidney disease, ongoing chemotherapy, status after organ transplantation, status after stem cell transplantation and ongoing immunosuppression, B-cell depletion (e.g. rituximab therapy), HIV infection with poorly controlled disease, Down’s syndrome (trisomy 21). “
The Federal Ministry of Health provides the two drugs with monoclonal antibodies. The treatment is free of charge for the patients. The therapy is relatively expensive at around 1000 euros, but in comparison to hospital stays or even a transfer to the intensive care unit for the health system it is also an economically sensible way of treatment.
Emanuel Wyler from the Max Delbrück Center Berlin explains how the treatment works: “These infusions contain antibodies that recognize the virus. Usually 1 to 3 different antibodies are used, each of which is ‘monoclonal’, they are also ‘antibody cocktails’. “Trump received this antibody cocktail when he was infected with corona and was very positive about the result after the treatment . Wyler about the method: “The antibodies are directed against the spike protein, i.e. the protein on the virus surface. When you get vaccinated, you make a lot of different antibodies to the spike protein, some of them good, some not so good. This is then a ‘polyclonal’ mix. The best can then be isolated in the laboratory, and made with genetically modified cells in the laboratory, then there are individual monoclonal antibodies. “
Wyler considers the therapy to be particularly useful for unvaccinated people: “If you eat these antibodies from an unvaccinated person, the same thing actually happens as with an infection after a vaccination, that is, antibodies die attach to the virus and prevent it from reaching other cells to infect in the body. ”In the case of an infection, antibodies are produced after two to three days“ by activating the immune memory of the vaccination ”. Wyler: “Antibody therapy is therefore practically the second best option after vaccination, but it is the best option for immunocompromised people, for whom the vaccination does not work.” The founder of passive immunization was the Berlin doctor Paul Behring with diphtheria.
Wyler sees the method as well tolerated: “Since it is a quasi-nature-identical drug, there are actually no side effects.” So it is now that in acute viral diseases, the virus is not active in the body that long after being infected up to 14 days. More severe disease courses from Covid-19 are a result of the immune system’s reaction to the virus. That means that if you come too late, the treatment hardly makes any difference. ”Therapy should therefore begin immediately after the PCR test.
According to Wyler, the treatment is not necessary for “reasonably healthy people” because they “can eliminate the virus themselves”. When such patients become seriously ill, it is because of the immune system’s response to the virus. Five days after a positive PCR test are around 14 days after infection – “then the course has actually already been set”. In the case of risk groups, however, it was found “that they tend to have trouble getting rid of the virus quickly”. In this case, the antibodies will also help if they are given after ten to 14 days.
With timely therapy, the intensive care units could be relieved, i.e. the spokeswoman for the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. In the past few weeks, KV Berlin has campaigned for infusion therapy to be offered to people at risk from Covid 19 in Berlin. In order to make this promising path better known, the KV has put up information posters in the test centers and in pharmacies.