Kinkini Gupta
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Written By: Kinkini Gupta | Updated : June 9, 2022 5:31 PM IST
Antibodies From COVID-19 Patients Can Neutralize All Its Variants
People with "hybrid immunity" who had been infected with COVID and subsequently vaccinated against the virus may have antibodies that can neutralize all the variants of SARS-CoV-2. Scientists at Scripps Research have isolated 30 antibodies that recognize a wide range of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1 that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak. They believe that these antibodies could help in the development of broad coronavirus vaccines, which more effective than the current vaccines that are specific to SARS-CoV-2. The details on the antibodies were published in Nature Immunology.
This shows that though SARS-CoV-2 is mutating, there are still parts of the virus that can be targeted for broad vaccination strategies, noted senior author Raiees Andrabi, an investigator in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology.
In the new study, the research team compared antibody responses elicited in people who had been infected with COVID-19, those who had been vaccinated against COVID-19, and people who had acquired hybrid immunity from both.
According to the researchers, people with hybrid immunity had the strongest and broadest spectrum of antibodies. They identified 30 antibodies that could neutralize or block five variants of SARS-CoV-2 (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron), SARS-CoV-1, as well as a pangolin coronavirus and one from horseshoe bats in China.
They didn't find any antibody from the 'vaccination-only' or 'infection-only' group that could neutralize all these viruses.
The researchers also found that most of the antibodies, they have isolated from people with hybrid immunity, recognized the same part of the viruses' structures, called the receptor-binding domain on the spike protein. Additionally, the antibodies had similarities when it came to how they were produced by the body. This is an important clue that may help in designing vaccines that can induce the immune system to produce the same antibodies, the authors stated.
To further confirm their lab findings, they exposed mice treated with three of the most potent antibodies (known as CC25.36, CC25.53 and CC25.54) to SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, or the horseshoe bat virus SHC014-CoV.
They observed that mice that had been treated with the antibodies had significantly lower levels of virus in their lungs compared to control mice. The results were seen against all three viruses.
"That tells us that if we are able to induce these antibodies by vaccination, they will likely give you broad protection against diverse SARS-like viruses," Andrabi was quoted as saying.
Co-senior-author Dennis Burton, chair of the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, added that their next goal is to design vaccines and to try to elicit similar broadly-neutralizing antibodies by vaccination.
