Could a new class of antibodies treat COVID-19 in a manner that avoids resistance?:
One major avenue for COVID-19 drug development involves trying to reproduce our bodies' natural immune response. A number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies have been developing artificially-produced antibodies to serve as drugs to both treat COVID-19 and provide some temporary (weeks to months) protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. There are many antibodies in clinical trials right now, most of which have a pretty obvious mechanism of action (manner in which they neutralize the virus): directly blocking the virus from binding to human cells. However, some of the antibodies in clinical trials do not have an easily explained mechanism of action, as they do not directly block viral entry. Intriguingly, they bind to a conserved region on the virus that may not be able to easily mutate, meaning these antibodies may still be effective even as the virus mutates.
As mentioned above, these antibodies that are currently under development aim to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection by disrupting viral entry, but moving to a deeper level of how the things work: what do and don't we know about how these antibodies neutralize SARS-CoV-2?
Journal Reference:
Casalino L., Gaieb Z., Goldsmith, J.A., Beyond Shielding: The Roles of Glycans in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein [open], ACS Central Science (DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c01056)
Christopher O. Barnes, Claudia A. Jette, Morgan E. Abernathy, et al. SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody structures inform therapeutic strategies [open], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2852-1)
Dora Pinto, Young-Jun Park, Martina Beltramello, et al. Cross-neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by a human monoclonal SARS-CoV antibody [open], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2349-y)
Brooke E. Husic and Vijay S. Pande, Markov State Models: From an Art to a Science, (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b12191)
Lorenzo Casalino, et al,Beyond Shielding: The Roles of Glycans in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein [open], ACS Central Science (DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c01056)
Christopher O. Barnes, Claudia A. Jette, Morgan E. Abernathy, et al. SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody structures inform therapeutic strategies [open], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2852-1)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Monday November 23 2020, @10:28PM (10 children)
Having a medication for which the mechanism of action isn't fully understood is actually quite common. There's an awful lot of stuff out there where we know, from extensive empirical evaluation, the results, the side effects, and the dosage, but the precise mechanism of action is TBD.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @11:48PM (5 children)
You may grow horns and a second dick, but hey, no Covid!
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday November 24 2020, @12:01AM (1 child)
I'd have to grow a first dick first...
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday November 24 2020, @12:11AM
It's up to you, of course, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.
Peeing standing up is way better, but a dick is likely to get you into trouble.
(Score: 4, Funny) by RamiK on Tuesday November 24 2020, @12:03AM (2 children)
Any adverse effects?
compiling...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 24 2020, @11:19AM (1 child)
Depending on their size, one may faint with two dicks in erection, there's only that much blood in a human body
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday November 24 2020, @03:14PM
So to sum it all up, the procedure is:
Step 1. Drop over at the blood drive.
Step 2. Get to the sperm bank.
Step 3. If left standing, line up for the new COVID-19 inoculation shot. If not, wait for a different inoculation.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday November 24 2020, @04:09AM (1 child)
One perhaps peripherally relevant... canine distemper can be treated with a high degree of success using antibodies generated by vaccine for Newcastle (a disease of chickens), or in a pinch, with Newcastle vaccine itself. The veterinarian who developed this treatment is unsure how it works, but it appears to halt replication of distemper virus within a few hours, and the dog recovers as if by magic (instead of dying as is the more usual course of the disease).
https://www.kindheartsinaction.com/archives/1353 [kindheartsinaction.com]
Yes, it works; I've personally used it.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @05:50AM
According to the taxonomy, CDV is related to NDV and they share similar sequences and proteins [researchgate.net] Perhaps the common ancestry and similarity results in antigens that are similar enough between them. Even partial effectiveness would shorten the amount of guesses the body has to do to generate a polyclonal response. Such similarities allowing immunity have happened before, most famously with Smallpox and Cowpox.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @08:09PM (1 child)
The claims that the mechanism of action here is not understood seems a bit over exaggerated.
The fact that they attach to the virus itself makes the virus more bulky and makes the overall viral structure less able to attach to the target cell antigens and get taken in by the cell. More 'steric hindrance" I guess. Plus it's possible that it can affect the shape and form combinations of the virus making it harder for the virus to attach to the target cell as well.
Plus antibodies attached to viruses may clump to other antibodies (agglutination) making the whole clumped structure harder for the virus to invade cells.
Also antibodies can make it easier for macrophages and neutrophils to destroy the viruses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jBpv9fYSU4 [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @09:18PM
This is also why recent exposure to a corona virus might help give limited immunity to Covid. If there is a conserved region between the corona virus and Covid the antibodies might cling to these conserved regions reducing Covid's spread speed within the body giving the specific immune system more time to create more specific antibodies for Covid.
This might also help account for some of the asymptomatic infections as well. The antibodies against corona viruses might help reduce the severity of Covid enough to stop it from making the person that sick but not enough to stop it from spreading until the specific immune system devises a more targeted attack against COVID.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @12:21AM (2 children)
Isn't it curious how a hoax dempanic generates so many fake news gibberish articles? The world must be choke full of pedos! (large grin)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @12:36AM (1 child)
RINO mods on S/N. No wonder, they are everywhere.
Release the Kraken, patriots, in God Emperor Trump we trust! (large grin)
Because TMB said that politics on the site is permitted
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @12:55AM
Two out of two so far. Turns out that TMB... ummm... could be mistaken? Or maybe he was speaking about a different "we".
(large grin)