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Researchers from the Netherlands and Germany were able to produce antibodies in the laboratory capable of blocking the action of the virus that causes Covid-19. The technique they used is already being used on a large scale to produce drugs against other diseases, opening up the possibility that these molecules will also be used against the new disease, which has so far killed at least 250,000 people worldwide.
Under the leadership of Frank Grosveld of the Erasmus Medical Center and Berend-Jan Bosch of the University of Utrecht (both Dutch institutions), the group of scientists has just published their work in the specialist journal Nature Communications.
The molecule they obtained is called a monoclonal antibody. This means that it was produced from single cell clones (hence the term “monoclonal” or “one clone”). In addition, monoclonal antibodies also connect to a single region of foreign molecules in the body to neutralize it. Its use to fight different types of cancer, attacking only tumor cells, has become increasingly common.
The monoclonal antibodies in the European study were created with the aim of neutralizing the so-called protein S (spike), the molecular hook used by the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus to connect to the surface of human cells. By blocking the action of protein S, it is believed that the virus could not invade cells, thus preventing infection.
To achieve this goal, the group worked with transgenic mice, whose body is capable of producing antibodies whose composition is partially similar to that of human antibodies. These animals were inoculated with the coronavirus S protein to stimulate the production of antibodies against it in their bodies, a process identical to vaccination in humans.
The monoclonal antibodies produced by the mice were “formatted” to assume a molecular configuration fully compatible with the human organism and began to be tested in direct contact with protein S and with a cell line of monkeys widely used in the laboratory.
In these tests, the molecules were able to block the entry of Sars-CoV-2 and a relative of it, Sars-CoV (the cause of the Sars epidemic, another respiratory disease, earlier in this century), into cells. Interestingly, it is unclear how the new monoclonal antibody does this: Protein S has continued to bind to the “block” it uses to invade cells, but despite this, the viruses were no longer able to enter.
In addition to trying to explain what the protective mechanism caused by the antibodies is, the researchers also need to see how they would work in human patients, since for now, the molecules have only been tested with cell cultures in the laboratory. According to the researchers, the monoclonal antibody has the potential to be used both for diagnosing the disease and for therapeutic purposes.
