Research Projects

Antibodies play a crucial role in controlling infection, but they can also enhance infection through Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) in viruses. ADE is primarily caused by increased viral entrance into monocytes/macrophages and granulocytes, extrinsic ADE, and increased immunological activation intrinsic ADE. This study aims to determine if an anti-spike antibody coupled to SARS-CoV-2 can mediate the entry of various viral types into immune cells. The study will generate pseudo viruses, perform ADE and neutralization assays, and study gene expression patterns during ADE. The findings will indicate the probabilities of ADE occurring in various SARS-CoV-2 developing variants and provide insights into the mechanism of antibody-dependent enhancement ADE in SARS-CoV-2. This information will help to understand how ADE leads to more severe disease in some patients and contribute to future efforts for vaccine development and immunological therapies.