Omicron renders most monoclonal antibody therapy ineffective: Study

Monoclonal antibody therapy once hailed as 100 per cent effective in stopping Covid19 in its tracks has been defeated by the new super mutant Omicron variant of the coronavirus according to an international study involving researchers from the US Japan and SwitzerlandMonoclonal antibodies are proteins designed to attach to a specific target in this case the spike protein of SARSCoV2 which the virus uses to enter human cells Several studies have shown that monoclonal antibody therapy can stop Covid infections progression to ICU admissions and deathThe cocktail therapy shot to fame after it was used to treat then US President Donald Trump last October It was also approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in November last year and even by the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation CDSCO for use in India in May 2021A team of researchers analysed the efficacy of monoclonal antibody treatments from major pharma companiesThe findings posted on preprint server biorxiv and not peerreviewed yet revealed that the therapy developed by pharma giants like Regeneron Lilly and Celltrion completely lost neutralising activity when faced with OmicronHowever monoclonal antibody treatments by AstraZeneca and Vir Biotechnology were minimally affected or in other words retained partial activityThe recent emergence of the highlytransmissible B11529 Omicron variant is especially concerning because of the number of mutations more than 30 in the spike proteinOur results suggest that several but not all of the antibody products in clinical use will lose efficacy against the B11529 Omicron variant and related strains wrote corresponding author Michael S Diamond from the Washington Universitys school of Medicine in the studyOur experiments show a marked loss of inhibitory activity by several of the most highly neutralising monoclonal antibodies that are in advanced clinical development or have emergency use approval he addedThe researchers evaluated antibodies that correspond to monotherapy or combination therapy that have shown pre and postexposure success in clinical trials and patients infected with historical SARSCoV2 isolatesThe study is in tandem with preliminary studies showing that several clinically used antibodies lose neutralising activity against Omicrons spikeexpressing recombinant lentiviral or vesicular stomatitis virus VSVbased pseudoviruses the researchers saidMoreover they noted that although monoclonal antibody treatments by AstraZeneca and Vir Biotechnology in clinical use may retain benefit validation experiments in vivo are needed to support this conclusion and inform clinical decisionsAlso Read Mumbai Amid rising Omicron cases BMC issues fresh guidelines ahead of New Year ChristmasThe study also noted several limitations such as the experiments focused on the impact of the extensive sequence changes in the B11529 spike protein on monoclonal antibodies neutralisation in cell culture Despite observing differences in neutralising activity with certain monoclonal antibodies it remains to be determined how this finding translates into effects on clinical protection against OmicronThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever