Israel Announces An Antibody That Neutralizes The Coronavirus

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) currently has no treatment or vaccine, leaving countries grappling with the wrath of the infectious disease. Caused by the novel coronavirus, now called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the viral infection has killed more than 257,000 people and infected at least 3.66 million. Scientists across the globe are racing to develop vaccines and therapies to combat the infection.

Israel has been one of the most active countries in battling COVID-19, and has been successful in “flattening the curve.” The country has announced dozens of medical studies and technologies they are developing to contain the spread of the virus and treat those who are critically ill.

Israel has isolated a key coronavirus antibody at its main biological research laboratory, the Israeli defence minister said on Monday, calling the step a “significant breakthrough” toward a possible treatment for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “monoclonal neutralising antibody” developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) “can neutralise it (the disease-causing coronavirus) inside carriers’ bodies,” Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement.

The statement added that Bennett visited the IIBR on Monday where he was briefed “on a significant breakthrough in finding an antidote for the coronavirus”.

The antibody reported as having been isolated at the IIBR is monoclonal, meaning it was derived from a single recovered cell and is thus potentially of more potent value in yielding a treatment.

Elsewhere, there have been coronavirus treatments developed from antibodies that are polyclonal, or derived from two or more cells of different ancestry, the magazine Science Direct reported in its May issue.

Israel was one of the first countries to close its borders and impose increasingly stringent restrictions on movement to hamper the domestic coronavirus outbreak. It has reported 16,246 cases and 235 deaths from the illness.

An important line of defense against SARS-CoV-2 is the formation of neutralizing antibodies. These can eliminate the intruders and have great potential to be used for prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Researchers have elucidated how these antibodies develop and have isolated potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Florian Klein (Cologne University Hospital) and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) has further elucidated how these antibodies develop and has isolated potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. Together with Boehringer Ingelheim, the researchers are currently characterizing and developing these antibodies further. It is expected that they will enter the stage of clinical development later this year. The results were published today (July 07, 2020) in the journal Cell.

“Our goal was to better understand the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and to identify highly potent antibodies that could be used to prevent and treat COVID-19,” explained Prof. Klein, Director of the Institute of Virology at the Cologne University Hospital and Principal Investigator at the DZIF. “We assume that such antibodies are effective for several weeks and may protect against COVID-19 during this period,” added Dr. Christoph Kreer, who conducted the work together with Dr. Matthias Zehner in Cologne.

In close collaboration with scientists from Marburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Tübingen and Israel, the researchers investigated the SARS-CoV-2 antibody response in twelve individuals recovered from COVID-19. They examined more than 4000 SARS-CoV-2-specific B cells on a single cell level and were able to partly decode the humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2. They reconstructed 255 antibodies in the laboratory, which were examined by Prof. Stephan Becker’s laboratory in Marburg for their ability to neutralise the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In total, 28 neutralising antibodies were found.

“Interestingly, many antibodies showed only a small number of mutations. This means that only minor changes were necessary to effectively recognise and neutralise the virus” says Dr. Zehner. In fact, in blood samples collected before the pandemic, the scientists found B cells carrying similar antibody characteristics to those of SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies. This may suggest that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies can be readily formed and that an active vaccine may provide rapid protection.

The antibodies have been developed for protecting against and treating COVID-19. In addition, these antibodies could be used for ‘post-exposure prophylaxis. Here antibodies would be applied after contact with an infected individual. “This form of intervention could be of particularly interest for stopping localised outbreaks and for preventing disease progression in people at risk,” said Prof. Klein. The scientists expect that first clinical trials will be performed at the end of 2020.