A new “ultra-potent” antibody has been discovered against COVID-19 variants by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. This monoclonal antibody is resistant against multiple variants of COVID-19, including the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The findings were published in the journal called “Cell Reports.” According to the study, the monoclonal antibody has rare characteristics, making it a valuable addition to the limited group of antibody therapeutic candidates. The antibody was discovered through a technology called LIBRA-seq, and this technology helps speed up the discovery of antibodies that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2, Science Daily reported.
LIBRA-seq – Technology Used To Find Ultra-Potent Antibody
Talking about LIBRA-seq, Ivelin Georgiev, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Program in Computational Microbiology and Immunology and associate director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation, said: “This is one way to proactively build a repertoire of potential therapeutics. The pathogens keep evolving, and we’re basically playing catch-up.”
This technology also helps anticipate future outbreaks before they occur, so with LIBRA-seq, it is possible to prevent a repeat of the current pandemic in the future.
Goergiev and his team are keen to find antibodies that would stop COVID-19 variants from mutating. “If we give the virus enough time, there will be so many other variants that arise,” he wrote in the paper. According to the expert, if this happens, a variant may soon emerge that will evade COVID-19 vaccines being administered to people and are helping curb the increase of infections and deaths caused by the deadly virus.
Findings About The Ultra-Potent Antibody
Talking about the antibody, Georgiev and the other researchers said they found it in a patient who recovered from COVID-19. This antibody has an uncommon genetic and structural characteristic. Researchers say that as it has characteristics that SARS-CoV-2 has not seen before, it will be less likely to mutate and escape such antibody.
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COVID-19 has so far infected 43,668,680 people and claimed 705,293 lives in the United States since the start of the pandemic, according to worldometer data.
