Good news on the 206 antibodies scientists isolated from 8 COVID patients

[octoberlib]

Link to tweet

?s=21

Study of 206 monoclonal antibodies against #SARSCoV2 isolated from 8 #COVID19 patients. Some antibody clones are highly effective at neutralizing live SARS-CoV-2 virus in cells, suggesting that we now know human antibody sequences that would be effective COVID-19 drugs.

In addition, the authors observed interesting cross-reactivity of antibodies against SARS-CoV & MERS-CoV trimeric spike protein, but not against SARS-CoV & MERS-CoV spike receptor-binding domain, suggesting unusual antibody response viral specificity (2/2) biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Yes, very good news. There are now multiple reports of monoclonal (we know exactly which protein sequence needs to be manufactured) human (should be quite safe as drugs) antibodies that block the #SARSCoV2 virus that causes #COVID19. Same strategy as was used to treat Ebola.

Link to tweet

?s=21

Annotated table of current #COVID19 #COVID2019 therapeutics and vaccines in development, listing developer, clinical phase, timing, & sources, assembled by the @MilkenInstitute. Current tally: 71 therapeutics in development, and 47 vaccines in development. milkeninstitute.org/sites/default/…

[Ghost Dog]

1. So the paper is here. The abstract reads:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.21.990770v1.full.pdf

... SARS-CoV-2 cellular entry depends on binding
34 between the viral Spike protein receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the
35 angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) target cell receptor. Here, we report
36 on the isolation and characterization of 206 RBD-specific monoclonal
37 antibodies (mAbs) derived from single B cells of eight SARS-CoV-2 infected
38 individuals. These mAbs come from diverse families of antibody heavy and light
39 chains without apparent enrichment for particular families in the repertoire. In
40 samples from one patient selected for further analyses, we found coexistence
41 of germline and germline divergent clones. Both clone types demonstrated
42 impressive binding and neutralizing activity against pseudovirus and live SARS43 CoV-2. 43 However, the antibody neutralizing potency is determined by
44 competition with ACE2 receptor for RBD binding. Surprisingly, none of the
45 SARS-CoV-2 antibodies nor the infected plasma cross-reacted with RBDs from
46 either SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV although substantial plasma cross-reactivity
47 to the trimeric Spike proteins from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV was found.
48 These results suggest that antibody response to RBDs is viral species-specific
49 while that cross-recognition target regions outside the RBD. The specificity and
50 neutralizing characteristics of this plasma cross-reactivity requires further
51 investigation. Nevertheless, the diverse and potent neutralizing antibodies
52 identified here are promising candidates for prophylactic and therapeutic
53 SARS-CoV-2 interventions...

[SheltieLover]

5. Yaaaaay!

Thank you so much for this hopeful news!

Now, if we can get the grifters out of positions of power, we have a good chance of eventually beating this dreaded nightmare!

[subana]

2. great news!!

we need all the help we can get!!

[oldsoftie]

4. Since none of that makes sense to me, i'm happy to see you say "great news"!

[greymattermom]

9. This is the path toward making a "biological"

i.e. an injectable treatment that would reduce viral load in patients.

[Lulu KC]

15. LOL

I am learning a lot during this time! With plenty of translators available to help.

[subana]

40. just to be clear

I'm not a scientist but I do know that this is a basic step to developing a vaccine or treatment! That's why it's great news! We're not there yet but we're heading in that direction!

[oldsoftie]

41. Good! Thank you

[subana]

42. you're welcome...

[Demovictory9]

44. +1

[Dios Mio]

11. trump

I would love to hear him try to explain some of this news at a press conference. Talk about word salads.

[subana]

39. & total BS!

if he did, it would sound like he's trying to make a reasonable explanation but it wouldn't really say anything at all!

[Doodley]

54. He will try to take credit for it.

[a la izquierda]

3. From the sounds of it this is superb.

Though since I’m a historian my mind went pretty blank reading through this. 🤣

[MFM008]

6. I see a tiny teeny

Spark of hope!

[magicarpet]

7. Hurry, hospital workers are entering a phase of high danger and risk.

[NNadir]

8. Not to rain on the parade, but it is a long distance between sequencing and a drug.

Among other things, one needs to genetically engineer cells - CHO cells or bacteria - to produce the drug, a non-trivial task, and then one has to sort those cells from cells which do not produce the correct compound, then one has to learn to culture those cells on scale, develop isolation techniques that do not cause changes, test the drug for its capacity to produce anti-drug antibodies (ADA), find a way to deliver the drug.

This is obviously not going to occur in less than a month. It may, in fact, take years.

[harumph]

13. One aspect that I've been trying to get up on - is the

problem of antibody dependent enhancement. The dengue vaccine has had
quite a few problems with this, wherein antibodies produced in response to
vaccination actually facilitate/speed the entry into cells of subsequent
infection with different strains of dengue. This is a concern shared by
immunologists that is not yet entered the public dialog.

[NNadir]

17. Sure. In conversations with the general public, however we need to distinguish between...

...a vaccine and a drug however.

Isolating antibodies from an infected patient is a path to a drug, wherein you engineer an organism to produce those antibodies which can then be administered to the patient.

A vaccine, by contrast, is where you put an inactive chimeric compound or system (which can include a dead or weakened virus) to encourage a patient to generate his or her own antibodies.

A drug is a treatment after the disease syndrome is observed - although it can be utilized as a prophylactic - and a vaccine is designed to prevent infection in the first place.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

34. Thank you for sharing your experience here.

We all need doses of reality along with any dab of rare good news and especially to counter some of the snake oil crap floating around the media.

As a non-medical scientist (retired), I do appreciate your knowledge and work.


KY..........

[NNadir]

38. Thank you. It's my pleasure. n/t.

[wnylib]

19. Does that mean that recovered patients who have

produced antibodies would be more susceptible to a mutation or to another type of coronavirus infection in the future?

Could that explain why younger people get milder cases than older people, who might have had colds or flu caused by a coronavirus in the past? Young people, lacking previous antibodies woukd then have milder infections?

If that were the case, though, why would the current antibidies from recovered patients demonstrate the ability to block covid 19?

[lagomorph777]

18. What about protein synthesis? Been doing it at least since 2003

https://www.hhmi.org/news/researchers-design-and-build-first-artificial-protein

The article is about a protein designed from scratch (which is harder due to the 3D geometry being tricky to predict).

In this case, the protein sequence is known; it would assuredly fold the way you want it to. Just need to crank it out.

[NNadir]

22. I'm sorry, but it is naive to consider this lab scale result as having any practical...

...application here.

You do not "crank these things out."

I was involved in a project to make T-20, the drug Fuzeon, which is a CCR5 fusion inhibitor. It was, as I recall, somewhere between 25-35 amino acids long.

It was a massive effort.

In the plant where this drug was made they had massive chromatography columns and simply maintaining these columns and finding supplies of the stationary phases was a tremendous undertaking. Disposing of the relatively toxic mobile phase was expensive.

It is far cheaper, far more reliable, and more widely used to engineer a genetically modified cell. There is huge experience with doing this, and many drugs on the market, for example, Humira, use this technology. However it has limits to the rate of development.

[lagomorph777]

23. Thanks for the practical experience. As you say, I am naive.

[NNadir]

25. It is perfectly fine to be naive. The problem, as we are seeing with the orange asshole, is...

...claiming to be an expert in a topic you actually know nothing about.

Trump's ignorance is killing people.

I am naive about many things, but I have been involved in drug development throughout a long career and I know something about the topic and in this particular area I am not naive.

[lagomorph777]

28. I hope I didn't seem to be claiming expertise. Just a moment of Googling.

Now, ask me about satellite communications or analog music synthesis, and I'll drill pretty deeply.

[NNadir]

29. You're fine. Even in a crisis, it's a good day any day you learn something new.

I wish I could find the time to discuss the things about which you know way more than I do.

[Botany]

10. This is good news

n/t

[lark]

12. Great news! Just keep drumpfs' mitts off of it or none of us would be able to afford it.

He intended to buy the German bio-co. have them make a vaccine and he would 100% be in control of this and would raise the prices to the moon. I'm sure he still wants to do that some way or another and I sure hope he is stopped.

[wnylib]

20. Crossed my mind that thus is the reason

he pushes the malaria drug so much. Either has stock in the company, intentions to control it, or a pal on the board of directors, maybe the CEO.

[Nonhlanhla]

24. The malaria drug is cheap and generic

He is likely pushing it because he's looking for a quick way out of this mess. Rumors about the malaria drug have been circulating since February, and there is some anecdotal evidence of it working, but as Fauci said, it's not been properly verified. It if does work, it would actually be great, because it's been around for decades, can be made generically, and is cheap - although it's unlikely to be a wonder drug. So I don't think profit is driving Trump - it's just his childish way of grasping at straws because he does not want to face the reality of this pandemic, because he is focused on his reelection.

[NNadir]

26. There is no evidence whatsoever that it even really works.

Patients that need the drug are, however, being denied access because of a sudden drug shortage.

Trump's ignorance kills people or makes them suffer.

[Nonhlanhla]

32. I know

And I did not suggest otherwise.

[NNadir]

35. You did not suggest otherwise. The sad point is that because Trump googled, or had...

...one of his idiot kids or the fool Jared do so, people who actually need this drug don't have it.

[Nonhlanhla]

36. Yes, and people in Nigeria also died from it

thanks to DT pushing something he only halfway understands for his own purposes.

[NNadir]

37. You're being overly generous in stating that he halfway understands it. He's a completely...

...uneducated fool, the reification of the Dunning-Kruger concept.

He wouldn't be able to distinguish a virus from a rosebud.

[wnylib]

43. I'm aware of how his eagerness

to brush the covid crisis aside would be a motive for pushing a drug he heard stories about. I know that he has no understanding of the testing necessary or scruples about promoting an unverified use for the drug. That probably is his primary motive.

But I would not exclude potential profit as a motive, either, even if it can be made cheaply. High demand drugs can go up in price. Look what happened with insulin.

Regarding the drug itself, not only is it not proven effective for covid, I have read that it has had some serious interactions with other medications for people taking it for other purposes.

But, since there are some anecdotal reports of success with covid 19, it can be used as a last ditch trial for people who are so sick that there is no other hope for them. Cuomo got permission to do that in NYC and is supplementing it with Azithromycin (Z pack). Z pack is an antibiotic, not an anti viral, but works well in secondary bacterial bronchitis or pneumonia that can accompany viral infections. Has worked that way for me many times.

I would be delighted if it turned out to be an effective treatment for covid 19, but for different reasons than Genocide Don and his Republican Death Squad.

[Nonhlanhla]

45. I suspect Remdesivir might turn out to be better

There is some cautious hope around that drug, but it's still in trials (although luckily safety trial were conducted when it was first developed, so if it works on Covid, it could be fast tracked). They should have some data in a month.

It would be nice if this malaria drug works, but the data is very spotty so far. I wonder if the Z Pack is not more efficient - I know it does not work on viruses but as a veteran of many, many bouts of bronchitis, I have never seen my bronchitis resolve without antibiotics, so I suspect for a lot of folks it's the secondary bacterial stuff that's the problem.

Time will tell. I just wish Trump will get out of the way of the experts, but he's too much of a narcissist to do so, of course.

[wnylib]

46. Ah, another veteran of numerous bouts of

acute bronchitis. For me, the bronchitis includes muktiple asthma attacks daily. Z Pack is the only relief for me. Naturally, I am therefore extremely wary of covid 19. Besides the health issue, I'm 70.

Need to go pick up a 3 month supply of regular meds today. Will definitely wear gloves, carry antiseptic wipes, and change clothes and shower when I return. Might wear a mask, too.

[Nonhlanhla]

47. Stay safe out there

I'm only 50 (or will be in a few weeks), but I've had bronchitis so many times in my life that I cannot even count it (I am asthmatic) - most recently a few weeks ago. Doc put me on massive amounts of Prednisone and Z pack and the illness finally resolved last week. Was a bit different than usual - might even have been coronavirus (if so, I was damn lucky).

Be careful picking up those meds - yes, wear a mask if you have any. My insurance enabled me to switch over to their online pharmacy, since I am not going out at all, and I just received my 3 month supply of rescue inhaler and Singulair - still waiting for my steroid inhaler, which is the most important one - hope they have not run out.

Stay safe!

[wnylib]

48. Well, I haven't left yet to pick up

the meds. The pharmacy is willing to mail them and I am debating their offer. It amounts to 3 pill bottles which might not fit into the small mailbox in my apartment building lobby, depending on how they are packaged. The mailboxes are stacked together in rows, which is a risk in itself. If it does not fit, the post office might hold it for pickup, or deliver it to the building's management office instead. That involves extra handling by multiple people, and going somewhere to pick it up anyway.

So I'm thinking it is better to go directly to the pharmacy for them. It means touching the cc machine, but I have gloves and sanitizer. If I go early tomorrow morning, I can avoid too much people contact. CVS is good about enforcing the 6 foot rule in line, but less people is better.

Just going out of my apt involves care because of the elevator buttons and exterior building doors.

I already had gloves and a couple of masks before covid 19 to use for my furniture touch up hobby.

RE: Prednisone. I took a low dose for 2 years for a muscle problem. Don't need it now but still have some left. I considered it as an anti-inflammatory if I get covid 19, but the downside is that it suppresses the immune system. Antihistamines might be better since they don't supress it.

Your asthma and lung infection history are vulnerabilities regardless of age, so be careful and be safe.

[Nonhlanhla]

49. Sounds like you have the best plan

Regarding Prednisone, you are right. I only took it for a week - I would not want to take it long term right now. I am scared of this virus - I am under no illusions that I'm too young to die from it, especially given my asthma and bronchitis history.

Here is some advice for staying away from infection: https://medium.com/@amcarter/i-had-no-immune-system-for-months-after-my-bone-marrow-transplant-1b097f16040c

[wnylib]

50. I needed the long term Prednisone

for a condition that developed as a result of 4 bouts of viral infections and bronchitis in one winter. Polymyalgia rheumatica. Despite the name, it is not related to fibromyalgia or to rheumatoid arthritis. I never heard of it until I had it. More common in women than men, and only occurs in people 60 and older. Follows viral infections and bronchitis.

It is a VERY painful and crippling chronic muscle inflammation, made worse in my case by a PA who insisted it was "only" arthritis. New PA recognized it right away and prescribed the Prednisone which is the only med that works for it. Takes several months for most cases, a year or more for stubborn cases. Gradually reduced dosage from 10 mg to 2 mg until I could stop without symptoms returning.

Amazing results. I now have full use of arm and leg movement without excruciating, crippling pain. Like a new person. But, while on it, I gained weight, and got the grouchy disposition associated with steroid use. Took time to get back to myself and to firm up muscles again.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

52. I took Prednisone for spine inflammation

It worked but made me loopy.
Lol. Weird weird thoughts..

[lark]

31. You nailed it.

He's got a line for self-profit and by damn we are going to use it whether it kills us or not!!! He alone matters, don't you know?

[Javaman]

14. SCIENCE!!! :) Great news! nt

[marble falls]

16. No thanks to Trump.

[Norbert]

21. Sounds hopeful. I just hope no Cuban doctors are involved in the research

or the orange idiot may reject it.

[Hortensis]

27. "71 therapeutics in development, and 47 vaccines in development"

Long road still ahead, but we can be very grateful at least that the Republicans let this pandemic loose in an era when awesome technological advances make this progress possible. For 200,000 years of human history, right up until the last few in this century, it would not have been.

[Trailrider1951]

30. Science, for the WIN!

Well done, Dr. Liu and associates!

[HarlanPepper]

33. Excellent news!

Ignore the condescending Debbie Downers. Just more phony “expert’n.”

[I_UndergroundPanther]

51. Whahoo!

Glad help is on its way pretty soon

[Meowmee]

53. Fantastic- I hope it can be used as preventative as well until we get a vaccine nt