M.U.S.T. has recently published another paper related to serological studies
on Chinese patients with SARS-CoV-2 in an internationally renowned
academic journal “Nature Medicine”
Professor Kang Zhang, Faculty of Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology(M.U.S.T.)
This project is led by Professor Zhang Kang from the Faculty of Medicine at Macau University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T.), who in cooperation with the National Kidney Disease Clinical Medical Research Center in Nanfang Hospital in China, evaluated the seroprevalence in various populations from four provinces (Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing and Guangdong). The level of IgM and IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in their sera were measured in this study. The result estimated the cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in different regions and populations in China. The survey was conducted from March 9 to April 10, 2020. There were 17,368 people tested. The relevant results help to better understand a more accurate COVID-19 infection rate. This paper was published in the latest issue of "Nature Medicine".
Professor Kang Zhang who is one of the corresponding authors of this article. He pointed out that the characteristics of the two antibodies, IgG and IgM, are different. The former is mainly used to determine whether an individual has been infected in an earlier period, while the latter is mainly used to judge the recent infection status, the sum of the two positive rates helps to accurately assess the overall infection status of SARS-CoV-2.
The survey results show that in Wuhan, the total seropositive rate of the population is 3.8%. The farther away from Wuhan, the lower the seropositive rate of the population. For example, the total antibody positive rate of 9442 residents tested in Chengdu Only 0.58%.
Professor Zhang said that the SARS-CoV-2 is a new and highly contagious virus. After the human body is exposed to this virus, the immune system will respond rapidly to generate specific antibodies against the virus, no matter whether clinical symptoms appear or not. It is clear whether the detected antibody is protective. On behalf of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Zhang is grateful for the support from the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) for providing partial funding and support.
Professor Zhang obtained his M.D. with Magna Cum Laude honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT joint MD program and his PhD in genetics from Harvard University. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University and his retina surgery fellowship at University of Utah. His research covers a wide range of topics in genetics, epigenetics, stem cells, nano-engineering and 3D printing, clinical trials, and artificial intelligence. He has extensive clinical experience and scientific research achievement. He has won many awards, such as Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research, Yangtze River Scholar at Peking University, the Ophthalmologist 100 Power list of 2016 and 2018, and 2010 American’s Top Ophthalmologists. His discovery that HTRA1 is a major susceptibility gene for age-related macular degeneration is listed as one of “top-ten breakthroughs in 2006” in Science Magazine. Dr. Zhang has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts in top peer-reviewed journals, such as New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Cell Stem Cell, Molecular Cell, PNAS, JCI etc. He has more than 26,000 citations and an H Index of 70.
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