Breakthrough in the war against the corona virus: researchers have identified antibodies that may eliminate the need for corona vaccinations | Tel aviv university

by time news

A scientific breakthrough by Tel Aviv University: a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University showed that antibodies isolated from the immune system of corona patients are 95% effective in neutralizing all known strains of the virus, including the delta and the omicron. According to the researchers, the discovery may replace the need for vaccinations and strengthen the immune system of populations at risk.

The research was conducted under the leadership of Dr. Natalia Freund and doctoral students Michael Moore and Rufan Lee from the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. The study was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Ben Crocker from the University of California, San Diego and Prof. Ya Jiang from Tsinghua University in Beijing. Prof. Mittal Gal-Tanami and Dr. Moshe Desau from Bar Ilan University also participated in the study.

This study is actually a continuation of a preliminary study conducted in October 2020, in the midst of the Corona crisis. Dr. Freund and her colleagues then plated all the type B immune system cells from the blood of those recovering from the “original” strain of the corona in Israel – and isolated nine antibodies that the patients produced. Now, it turns out that some of these antibodies are very effective in neutralizing the new strains of the corona, delta and omicron.

Dr. Freund: “In the previous study, we showed that the various antibodies that are formed in response to infection with the “original” corona virus are directed against different sites of the virus. The most effective antibodies were those that bound to the ‘spike’ protein of the virus, in the same place where the spike binds the cellular receptor called ACE2. Of course, we were not the only ones who isolated these antibodies, and the global health system made extensive use of them until the arrival of the different variants of the corona virus, which actually rendered most of those antibodies useless.”

In the current study, we proved that two other antibodies, TAU-1109 and TAU-2310, which bind the virus in a different region than the region where most of the antibodies have focused so far (and therefore were less effective in neutralizing the original strain) are actually very effective in neutralizing the delta and the omicron. According to our findings, the effectiveness of the first antibody TAU-1109 in neutralizing the omicron strain is 92% and in neutralizing the delta – 90%. The second antibody, TAU-2310 neutralizes the omicron with an efficiency of 84% and the delta with an efficiency of 97%.”

The possibility of an effective substitute for vaccines

According to Dr. Freund, the surprising effectiveness of these antibodies is related to the evolution of the virus: “The infectivity of the virus increased from variant to variant, because each time it changed the amino acid sequence of the region in the spike that binds to the ACE2 receptor – thus improving the infectivity, and at the same time escaping the antibodies the natural ones created following the administration of vaccines. In contrast, the immune system antibodies TAU-1109 and TAU-2310 initially did not bind to the ACE2 receptor but to another region of the spike, an area of ​​the virus that probably does not undergo many mutations – therefore they are effective in neutralizing all the variants we tested, and in fact in neutralizing all the known corona strains to date.”

The two antibodies, cloned in Dr. Freund’s laboratory at Tel Aviv University, were sent for effectiveness tests against live viruses in the laboratories of the University of California in San Diego and against pseudoviruses in the laboratories of the Galilee Faculty of Medicine of Bar Ilan University – and the results were identical and encouraging in both tests.

Dr. Freund believes that the antibodies can bring about a real revolution in the fight against Corona: “We need to put the Corona epidemic in the context of the last outbreaks known to mankind. People who were vaccinated against smallpox at birth and today are 50 years old – they still have antibodies, so they are probably protected, at least partially, from the monkeypox virus that we hear about recently. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the corona virus. For reasons we don’t fully understand, the level of antibodies against Corona declines significantly after three months, which is why we see people getting infected again and again, even after being vaccinated three times.

In our opinion, spot treatment with antibodies and their delivery to the body in high concentration can serve as an effective substitute for vaccines, especially for at-risk populations and people with a weakened immune system. Corona infection can cause serious illness, and we know that giving antibodies in the first days after infection can stop the spread of the virus. It is possible that through the antibody treatment we will not have to provide booster doses to the entire population every time there is a new variant.”

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