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The pandemic of coronavirus worldwide it has affected more than 233 million people, the countries which have managed to progress rapidly with the vaccination of the population have been able to contain, in part, the increase in the number of deaths which now stands at nearly of 5 million people. However, the permanent mutations of the virus and the resistance of some variants to vaccines available are failing countries that want to gradually return to “normalcy”.
While vaccination progresses steadily, effective treatments for patients who contract the coronavirus remain limited. For this reason, researchers around the world are looking for effective therapies to counter the effects of a virus that continues to mutate and surprise every day.
Worrisome variations seem to thwart advances in immunization and effective treatments. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (USA) have developed technology that has uncovered a antibody monoclonal ultrapotent against several variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, including the delta variant.
The Delta variant, detected for the first time in India, is one of the mutations that most affects the world because of its strong contagion and transmission power. So far, it has been reported in over 170 countries and as the course of the pandemic progresses, the course of the pandemic is changing. Many countries that had lifted restrictions on tourist entry, mobility and opening up economic activities have had to back down due to outbreaks of COVID-19 cases in the past five last months.
Research results by scientists at Vanderbilt University published in the journal Cell Reports highlight that the antibody found has unusual characteristics that make it a valuable tool for the limited set of broadly reactive antibody-based therapeutic candidates. .
The technology used by the researchers is known as LIBRA-seq and has been very useful in accelerating the discovery of antibodies capable of neutralizing the coronavirus. Another feature is the possibility that it generates to test antibodies against other viruses that have not yet caused human disease, but have a high potential to do so.
“It’s a way to proactively build a repository of potential therapies” against future outbreaks, said Dr Ivelin Georgiev, director of the Vanderbilt Program in Microbiology and Computational Immunology and Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Infection, Immunology and Inflammation.
“Pathogens continue to evolve, and we are basically working to catch up,” said Georgiev, associate professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology and informatics, and member of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, adding: “A A more proactive approach is needed to anticipate future outbreaks before they occur to prevent a recurrence of COVID-19, or something worse happening in the future.
The research results described the isolation of a monoclonal antibody from a patient who had recovered from COVID-19 that “shows potent neutralization” against SARS-CoV-2 and is effective against the variants virus.
Coronavirus treatments
Among the treatments authorized by the World Health Organization There is a combination of drugs whose combined use of casirivimab and imdevimab may be useful in treating non-severe cases of coronavirus at risk of hospitalization, although it has asked the company that makes them to facilitate their access given their high cost.
The treatment was urgently authorized in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States at the end of last November and is indicated for patients “presenting non-severe symptoms of COVID and at high risk of hospitalization”.
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