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Scientists in the UK have just recruited the world’s first participants to take part in a new long-acting antibody study.
If the treatment is effective, it could provide protection to people who have already been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 against developing COVID-19.
“We know that this combination of antibodies can neutralize the virus,” explains Catherine Houlihan, a virologist at University College London Hospitals (UCLH).
“Therefore, we hope to find that giving this treatment by injection can lead to immediate protection against the development of COVID-19 in people who have been exposed, when it would be too late to offer a vaccine.”
This may not be the first COVID-19 antibody treatment you’ve heard of. Outgoing United States President Donald Trump received monoclonal antibodies when he contracted the disease, and in the United States two different antibody treatments, casirivimab and imdevimab, received emergency approval in November.
But those antibody treatments are given to patients with mild or moderate COVID-19, who are at risk of progressing to a severe version of the disease.
“In a clinical trial of COVID-19 patients, casirivimab and imdevimab, administered together, were shown to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalization or emergency room visits in patients at high risk of disease progression within 28 days after treatment compared to placebo. “The FDA explained in a news release when the drugs were approved.
This new antibody therapy, called AZD7442 and developed by UCLH and AstraZeneca, is a little different.
AZD7442 is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies AZD8895 and AZD1061, which both target the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
“By targeting this region of the virus spike protein, antibodies can block the virus from binding to human cells and are therefore expected to block infection,” the team wrote on the ClinicalTrials.gov website. from USA
“Amino acid substitutions have been introduced into antibodies to extend their half-lives, which should prolong their potential prophylactic benefit, and decrease the effector function of Fc to decrease the potential risk of increased antibody-dependent disease.”
Antibodies are small Y-shaped proteins that attach to a particular section, called an antigen, of a virus, bacteria, or other pathogen, and “ tag ” it to be attacked by the immune system or directly block the pathogen. so that it does not invade our body. cells.
Your body produces normal antibodies after an infection, while monoclonal antibodies are cloned in a laboratory and can be injected into an already infected person, to help the immune system fight back.
The researchers hope that AZD7442, which is just beginning the Storm Chaser study (the name of its phase 3 trial), will provide protection for those who have been exposed to the virus but are not yet showing symptoms. Effectively, they are trying to prevent COVID-19 from happening in the first place.
“If you are dealing with outbreaks in settings such as nursing homes, or if you have patients who are particularly at risk for severe COVID, such as the elderly, then this could save many lives,” University of East Anglia Paul Hunter, infectious disease expert , said The Guardian.
“If you live with your elderly grandmother and you or someone else in the house gets infected, then you could give her this to protect her.”
But they also hope that it will be effective in the long term, over a period of 6 to 12 months, which means that people who cannot get the vaccine for medical reasons have another option to stay safe from the disease.
Researchers are looking at how this might work for people with compromised immune systems in a second trial called PROVENT.
“We will recruit people who are older or in long-term care, and who have conditions such as cancer and HIV that can affect the ability of their immune systems to respond to a vaccine,” said UCLH infectious disease consultant Nicky Longley. The Guardian.
“We want to assure anyone for whom a vaccine doesn’t work that we can offer an alternative that is just as protective.”
We hope to see where this takes us.
