By MANSUR SHAHEEN
Scientists have identified an antibody that can protect people from COVID-19, its variants and other types of coronaviruses.
The antibody, DH1047, works by binding to the virus’s cells and neutralizing them, preventing them from replicating.
It is effective at both preventing infection and at helping treat a person that has already contracted Covid.
The research team at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (UNC) and Duke University, in Durham, says it believes it has found a key piece that can help combat the current pandemic and future virus outbreaks.
‘This antibody has the potential to be a therapeutic for the current epidemic,’ Dr Barton Haynes, director of Duke Human Vaccine Institute and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
‘It could also be available for future outbreaks, if or when other coronaviruses jump from their natural animal hosts to humans.’
Researchers, who published their findings on November 2 in the Science Translational Medicine journal, identified more than 1,700 coronavirus antibodies.
Of that pool, 50 were identified that could bind to both Covid and SARS – the virus that caused an outbreak in Asia in the early 2000s – cells.
One, named DH1047, was particularly effective, being able to bind to all kinds of viruses, both animal- and human-based.
‘This antibody binds to the coronavirus at a location that is conserved across numerous mutations and variations,’ Haynes said.
‘As a result, it can neutralize a wide range of coronaviruses.’
The antibody was tested in mice, and found to be able to protect the rodents from developing a Covid infection after being exposed to the virus.
It was effective against all types of strains as well, including the highly contagious Delta variant.
Other types of coronaviruses that are believed to have the future potential of infecting humans were also tested, and were neutralized by the antibody.
‘The findings provide a template for the rational design of universal vaccine strategies that are variant-proof and provide broad protection from known and emerging coronaviruses,’ said Dr Ralph Baric, a professor of epidemiology at UNC and co-senior author of the research.
When testing the antibody on animals that were already infected, they found that it was effective at reducing the severity of symptoms related to the lungs.
‘The therapeutic activity even after mice were infected suggests that this could be a treatment deployed in the current pandemic…
If or when this research is developed into a medical product or procedure, the license of the materials should be placed with a series of producers so that no one company will be able to control the production and distribution. The fact that this was developed in an academic environment instead of a corporate lab should make this publicly available to any entity that is capable of using it for the public good.