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Tests on two different variants of the coronavirus show that one of the two monoclonal antibodies in Regeneron’s cocktail therapy can neutralize both, despite the mutations, the researchers reported on Wednesday.
According to CNN, the tests also confirm that the vaccines are likely to protect people against both the variant first seen in Britain and known as B.1.1.7 and another first noted in South Africa. South, called B.1.135.
However, mutations in B.1.135 allow the virus to evade immune responses a bit more, the team, led by Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University, reported in a pre-report. – printed – one not yet published. in a peer-reviewed journal.
The cocktail has obtained Emergency Use Clearance (EUA) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It was used to treat former US President Donald Trump when he tested positive for COVID-19 last year.
“As expected, the virus continues to mutate, and these data show the continued ability of REGEN-COV to neutralize emerging strains, thus validating our multi-antibody cocktail approach against infectious diseases,” said the president of Regeneron, Dr. George Yancopoulos, in a statement. cited by CNN.
Yancopoulos added: “With two complementary antibodies in a therapy, even if one of them has a reduced potency, the risk of losing the effectiveness of the cocktail is considerably reduced, because the virus would need to mutate in several different places. to escape the two antibodies. “
The team led by Ho tested the convalescent plasma of 20 patients who recovered from COVID-19, as well as the blood of 22 people who received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna.
CNN further reported that the team also tested Eli Lilly and Company’s unique monoclonal antibody treatment, which also has EUA. Mutations in B.1.1.7 had small effects, if any. But one mutation in particular, in B.1.135, reduced the effectiveness of the immune response in convalescent plasma, in both vaccines, of one of the antibodies to Regeneron and the antibody to Lilly, they said. .
The same mutation is found in a variant observed for the first time in Brazil. “Mutationally, this virus is moving in a direction that could ultimately lead to our current therapeutic and prophylactic interventions directed against the viral peak being evaded,” Ho’s team wrote as reported by CNN.
“If the rampant spread of the virus continues and more critical mutations accumulate, we may be doomed to continually pursue the course of SARS-CoV-2, as we have long done with the influenza virus. “, he added.
The team also said the world needs to vaccinate people faster and, in the meantime, double measures to stop the spread of the virus, such as the use of masks.
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