Molecular biologists from China have discovered a neutralizing monoclonal antibody, which, according to their data, can serve as the basis for creating a universal vaccine. It is noted that it will affect a unique part of the virus that does not change during the mutation process. The antibody was discovered in the course of a large-scale study: scientists obtained samples of immunoglobulin from the organisms of severely ill people, and then studied which parts of the virus they attacked.
Is there a chance of creating a universal vaccine? And will the discovery of Asian biologists help in this?
Professor of Virology, Chief Researcher at the Gamaleya Center Anatoly Altstein believes that the new antibody will not become the basis for a vaccine, but it may well be used for prevention: “Usually such drugs help prophylactically. Even if the antibody is injected the day before the onset of the disease, it can work. It may be able to reduce the severity of the disease when applied on the first day of the disease, but it is unlikely to continue further.
Antibody-based drugs are more suitable for preventing COVID-19, say, within the family. If these antibodies are injected in sufficient quantities, then there will be no infection. At the same time, drugs based on monoclonal antibodies are now quite expensive. To reduce their cost, you need to increase production.
It is possible to create one vaccine for all strains, but it will have nothing to do with these monoclonal antibodies. This will not help in the development of vaccinations: they will most likely not work very effectively with different variants of the coronavirus.
Chinese scientists mean that they have found a place in the protein of the virus that is the same for all strains, for all variants of the virus, and if a vaccine is made to it without the help of this antibody, it will protect.
But this is just a hypothesis. A vaccine is a vaccine, antibodies are antibodies. The difference is that with seroprophylaxis, immunity arises immediately, and with vaccination, you introduce an inactivated or live virus and what is called an antigen. After that, a long enough time must pass for antibodies and immunity to develop. “
Earlier, the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac said it was ready to start developing a vaccine against the omicron strain. At the same time, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended not to develop new drugs, but to adapt existing ones for a new type of infection. According to Chinese scientists, the antibody fought with the “beta” and “delta” strains with equal efficiency. Its effect has also been successfully tested in mice.
However, the omicron has not yet been studied, and it is too early to talk about the effectiveness of the prevention of COVID-19 using an open antibody without the results of a study of a new strain, says molecular biologist and scientific journalist Irina Yakutenko: “With such works, research began on the cocktail of monoclonal antibodies of the American pharmaceutical company Regeneron. It is used as a medicine in the early stages of the coronavirus.
Obviously, the antibodies discovered by Chinese biologists are also planned to be used in a similar way. The Regeneron cocktail is actively used in the West in the early stages in at-risk groups, but, most likely, it will be ineffective against omicron.
Chinese researchers claim that their antibodies will cope with the new COVID-19 mutation, but here you need to understand that if they tested all the other options experimentally, then in the case of the omicron, they could not technically conduct an experiment, because they do not yet have a strain …
The conclusion of the Chinese experts is based on the fact that their antibody is effective in sequence, and the place to which their antibodies are aimed is not changed in the omicron. This, however, must be checked, because it is far from the fact that this place has retained the same shape as in the protein of the new strain. ”
Scientists announced the emergence of the omicron in Botswana and South Africa on November 25. According to foreign media outlets, about 100 infected have been registered in South Africa. There are already several cases in at least 20 countries; on December 1, the United States was added to this list. At an emergency meeting, WHO recognized the new strain as “of concern” and named it “omicron” – after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. Countries in Europe, Asia, as well as the United States have introduced travel bans from some African countries.
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