New Antibody Works on All Strains of SARS-CoV-2

 

Back in December, I blogged about a new vaccine that sounded pretty exciting. It was developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and showed positive results in animal models.

The exciting thing is it is designed around a soccer-ball-shaped molecule to which could be attached a whole bunch of different spike proteins from different variants. Your immune system would react to all of them providing you universal protection.

Human clinical trials were starting at the time I wrote the blog, and I've been unable to determine the status. An undated posting I found said they were in their third month and still needed participants. Now the study is no longer listed on their clinical trials recruiting page. So either they have all the participants they need or are done with the trial. If I learn any more about it I will update.

Anyway, it may become obsolete because researchers have reported the discovery of a new antibody called SP1-77 that will protect from all known strains. It works in a slightly different way than existing vaccines.

All of the existing vaccines generate antibodies that attach to the receptor binding domains of the virus's spike proteins. A lot of the mutation of the virus is in these areas, giving it the potential to evade immune defenses developed from vaccination and/or infection. This is why the updated boosters available now were reformulated to match the current Omicron variants that are dominating infections.

But SP1-77 does not work in the same way. It attaches to a different part of the spike protein necessary for the virus to fuse with cells and inject its payload.  

More imporat, "SP1-77 binds the spike protein at a site that so far has not been mutated in any variant, and it neutralizes these variants by a novel mechanism,” notes one of the researchers involved in the study, Dr. Thomas Kirchhausen of Boston Children's Hospital.

Of course, the fact that it hasn't mutated yet don't mean it never will. But now that infections rates have dropped maybe it will be possible to take the virus by surprise and knock it down before it has a chance to evolve a way to evade SP1-77.



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