Sinopharm Group has made a significant discovery that the delta mutant virus strain is expected to usher in special drugs!

• by EVOMT
• 2021-08-05

On August 4th, CNBG of China Biology released a news that the research team of Yang Xiaoming of China Biology, a Chinese pharmaceutical group, recently discovered a monoclonal antibody that is effective against the delta variant virus strain, with an active IC50 of up to 5ng/ml. This means that the monoclonal antibody is effective against COVID-19 variant strains such as Delta, and the treatment of COVID-19, especially the variant strains such as Delta, is expected to usher in specific drugs. The research results have been published online in the Nature sub journal Cell Discovery. At present, the clinical application of this antibody is progressing in an orderly manner, which is expected to be used in the prevention and control of related COVID-19 epidemic in China.

(Image source: Visual China)

As a targeted therapeutic drug, monoclonal antibodies have the characteristics of strong specificity, significant efficacy, and low toxicity, and are known as& ldquo; Biological Missile; rdquo;， It has shown excellent efficacy and broad application prospects in the treatment of various diseases. In response to viral infectious diseases, monoclonal antibodies with neutralizing effect can specifically neutralize the virus and prevent the virus from entering the cell proliferation. They can be used as short-term prevention for high-risk groups, and also can be used for the treatment of diseases after virus infection. Therefore, they are also the focus of research on the prevention and control of the global COVID-19.

In this study, using phage display technology, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 8 convalescent patients with COVID-19 infection were used as gene raw materials to establish an immune library, and successfully screened several monoclonal antibodies with high and high activity against COVID-19. Crystal structure analysis data showed that the RBD epitope recognized by the most active antibody 2B11 highly overlaps with the binding site of ACE2, which can effectively block the binding of COVID-19 to ACE-2 on the cell surface, thus preventing it from infecting cells.

At the same time, the research team also used the IFNAR -/- mouse model mediated by hACE2 adenovirus (hACE2-ADV) to evaluate the prevention and treatment effects of 2B11 on COVID-19 infection. The results showed that compared with the control group, administration of 2B11 before or after the virus attack significantly reduced weight loss and lung viral load caused by virus infection; Further analysis of lung pathological sections showed that administration of 2B11 significantly reduced lung inflammation caused by viral infection.

As for the Delta variant virus (B.1.617.2), which has become the main variant of COVID-19 in the world, the research team said that the recent supplementary research results of this study showed that 2B11 has highly consistent neutralizing activity to this variant with the wild strain, indicating that 2B11 has great application value in the short-term prevention and early treatment of COVID-19 caused by Delta variant virus.