In order to protect risk patients from a severe corona infection, doctors rely on antibody preparations. Researchers have now discovered one that could even work against all corona variants.
The coronavirus is mutating. It keeps changing its properties to evade the body’s immune response. Regardless of whether it is due to vaccination or infection – the antibodies formed are then less or no longer able to neutralize the virus and prevent infection.
Protection against a severe course could also decrease if the corona variants escape the immune response.
This is not only fatal for the effectiveness of the corona vaccinations. Antibody drugs, which are administered prophylactically to risk groups, can also be less effective against new variants.
For this reason, scientists have been searching for months for antibodies that also protect against the new or generally all virus variants. A research team from the USA could now have found one.
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Scientists from the University of Alabama in Birmingham had examined the blood of former corona patients. Among other things, they found 17 different antibodies, four of which were able to neutralize the coronavirus, including the beta and omicron variants.
The antibody “1249A8” was particularly successful in this. Like many other preparations, this one is based on the spike protein of the corona virus. This allows the virus access to human cells, which is why it is a common target for drugs and vaccinations. However, this point is also changed by the mutations, which means that antibodies specially tailored to it lose their effectiveness.
With “1249A8”, however, the US researchers have now discovered an antibody that binds to an unchangeable part of this protein – and is therefore able to neutralize different variants. In laboratory experiments and initial tests with mice, “1249A8” achieved a neutralizing effect against
The researchers published their results in the journal Plos Pathogens. They also found that the antibody worked even better in combination with another one, “1213H7”.
Researchers from the Californian company Aridis had tested this antibody cocktail using hamsters. If both preparations were given, the viral load in the animals was significantly reduced.
The researchers hope that their results will contribute to the development of new, universal antibody preparations. For example, Aridis is already working on modifying the newly discovered antibodies in order to prolong their effectiveness.
“With Sars-CoV-2, it is the third time in the last two decades that a beta coronavirus has caused significant mortality in humans,” summarizes study author James Kobie. Sars-CoV-2 caused the most infections and deaths worldwide. New variants would also carry the risk of evading the immune system – even in vaccinated and previously infected people. And there remains the potential for other genetically distinct coronaviruses to emerge as new pandemic strains in the future.
“For these reasons, the search for new therapeutic and prophylactic drugs and vaccine strategies with universal activity against the coronavirus is critical to protect humanity from the current and future outbreaks or pandemics of the beta coronavirus.”
