Doctors called inappropriate antibody tests after vaccination

After vaccination against covid-19 , a test for the level of antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein (N) is not suitable to check the level of immunity. Representatives of medical laboratories and doctors told RBC about this.

When vaccinated, say, with Sputnik V, Pfizer, ASTRAZENECA vaccines, “only antibodies to the S-protein are formed in the human body,” virologist, professor at Moscow State University Alexei Agranovsky told RBC. Antibodies to another, nucleocapsid protein (N), "appear in the early period of the disease, at the time of virus replication, approximately on the tenth day from the onset of the disease, reaching a maximum on the 21st day," the press service of the Medsi clinic told RBC. “That is why it makes no sense to determine this type of antibody after vaccination, because the virus did not enter the body, did not replicate and did not cause an immune response in the form of the production of antibodies to the N-protein,” they said.

In the SARS-CoV-2 CORONAVIRUS, which causes COVID-19, there are four structural proteins that encode the RNA of the virus, Elvira Sokolovskaya, executive DIRECTOR of the Family DOCTOR clinic, recalled in a conversation with RBC. “Spike (S), envelope (E), nucleocapsid (N), membrane (M). Nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) proteins cause the most pronounced antibody response during infection,” she said.