![Scientists discover antibody which can kill off all COVID variants](https://maltadaily.mt/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/antibodyweb.jpg)
Researchers have found that the SP1-77 antibody and other members of its lineage demonstrated extremely wide activity in neutralising all COVID variants.
Therapeutic antibodies which were effective early on in the pandemic have lost some of their efficacy as SARS-CoV-2 has mutated and introduced more adaptive variants.
We may be able to better guard against possible variations thanks to a new, widely neutralising antibody created at Boston Children’s Hospital.
In tests, the antibody neutralised all known variants of concern, including all Omicron variants.
Frederick Alt, Ph.D., of the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the hospital who co-led the research said that “we hope that this humanised antibody will prove to be as effective at neutralising SARS-CoV-2 in patients as it has proven to be thus far in preclinical evaluations.”
Together with a Duke University team led by Dr. Barton Haynes, Alt and San Luo, Ph.D., they assessed the efficacy of these antibodies. What caused the SP1-77 to be so broadly neutralising.
Structural studies showed that it worked different from current ones. Many of the existing antibodies work by attaching to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike in certain regions, preventing SARS-CoV-2 from binding to our cells’ ACE2 receptors, which is the initial step in infection. The SP1-77 antibody binds to the RBD as well, but in a completely different manner that does not prevent the virus from binding to ACE2 receptors.
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