A team of researchers has found that antibodies extracted from the immune formula of recovered COVID-19 patients are effective in neutralizing all known strains of the virus, the Delta and Omicron variants.
According to the researchers, targeted treatment with those antibodies given to the body at peak concentrations can eliminate the need for repeated booster shots and immune formula from at-risk populations.
The research, which was conducted at Tel Aviv University, is a continuation of an earlier examination conducted in October 2020.
Led by Dr. Natalia Freund, from the university’s Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, in the initial study, the study team sequenced all immune-formula B cells from the blood of other people who had recovered from the original strain of COVID in Israel and monitored nine antibodies that the patients produced.
In the new study, the researchers claim that some of those antibodies are very effective at neutralizing the new coronavirus variants, Delta and Omicron.
“In the study provided, we demonstrated that two antibodies, TAU-1109 and TAU-2310, which bind to the viral spike protein in another domain of the region where the maximum antibodies were concentrated until now (and were therefore less effective at neutralizing the original strain) are very effective in neutralizing the Delta and Omicron variants,” Freund said.
“According to our findings, the efficacy of the first antibody, TAU-1109, to neutralize the Omicron strain is 92%, and to neutralize the Delta strain, 90%. The moment when the antibody, TAU-2310, neutralizes the Omicron variant with a power of 84% and the Delta variant with a power of 97%.
Freund believes that the effectiveness of those antibodies may be similar to the evolution of the virus, which has become increasingly infectious with each variant, changing the amino acid series of the spike protein component that binds to the ACE2 receptor.
“In contrast, the tau-1109 and TAU-2310 antibodies do not bind to the ACE2 receptor binding site, but to some other region of the spike protein, a viral tip domain that, for some reason, does not go through many mutations. and they are effective in neutralizing more viral variants,” he said.
“These findings emerged when we tested all strains of COVID to date,” he added.
The two antibodies cloned in Freund’s lab were sent for efficacy tests against live viruses in laboratory cultures at the University of California, San Diego, and against pseudoviruses at the laboratories of Bar-Ilan University School of Medicine in galilee; the effects were equally encouraging in both tests.
Freund said he believes those antibodies can lead to a real revolution in the fight against COVID-19, by providing a viable option for booster doses.
“We want to take a look at the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of past outbreaks that humanity has witnessed. People who were vaccinated against smallpox at birth and are now 50 years old still have antibodies, so they are protected, at least partially, from the ape smallpox virus that we’ve been hearing about recently,” he explained.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case with the coronavirus. For reasons we still don’t fully understand, the level of antibodies to COVID-19 decreases especially after 3 months, so we see other people becoming inflamed again and again, even after being vaccinated 3 times.
“From our point of view, targeted antibody treatment and its management of the frame at peak concentrations can serve as an effective replacement for repeated withdrawals, especially for at-risk populations and those with weakened immune systems,” he said.
“COVID-19 infection can cause serious illness, and we know that offering antibodies in the first few days after infection can prevent the spread of the virus. Therefore, it is possible that by using effective antibody therapy, we may not have to provide boosters. “dose to the entire population every time there is a new variant,” he concluded.
The studies were also conducted through Doctoral Scholars Michael Mor and Ruofan Lee of the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Sackler School of Medicine, and in collaboration with Dr. Ben Croker of the University of California, San Diego, Professor Ye Xiang of Tsinghua University in Beijing, Prof. Meital Gal-Tanamy and Dr. Moshe Dessau of Bar-Ilan University.
The review published in the journal Nature Communications Biology.
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Editor-in-chief and director of Israel, Nicky Blackburn has worked extensively as a journalist and editor in Britain and Israel for a number of domestic and foreign publications, adding The Cambridge Evening News, London News, Travel Weekly, Israel High Tech Investor and The Times of London. She is deputy editor of LINK Israel’s Business and Technology magazine and high-tech correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. She holds a master’s degree in creative writing and English literature from Bar Ilan University.