Two antibodies identified in Israel can fight all known COVID strains, study finds | The Times of Israel
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Israeli scientists say they have identified antibodies that are so powerful in neutralizing the coronavirus that they could eliminate the need for more vaccine boosters.
A research team at Tel Aviv University experimented with numerous antibodies and found that two in particular neutralize all known strains of the coronavirus, including Delta and Omicron, in a lab setting.
Antibody infusions are already used to treat some coronavirus patients, and microbiologist Dr. Natalia Freund, who directed the new study, said the antibodies she identified could be used to concoct a particularly potent infusion.
Based on their performance in lab conditions, the antibodies could provide the extra protection that today comes from booster shots, she said, adding that this could potentially make extra shots unnecessary among vaccinated people.
"COVID-19 infection can cause serious illness, and we know that providing antibodies in the first days following infection can stop the spread of the virus," Freund said.
Sign up for the Tech Israel Dailyand never miss Israel's top tech stories Newsletter email address Subscribe By signing up, you agree to the terms
"It is therefore possible that by using effective antibody treatment, we will not have to provide booster doses to the entire population every time there is a new variant," she added.
According to Freund, on a technical level, the reason for the success of the two antibodies seems to be that they bind to a different part of the coronavirus spike protein than most others.
Illustrative image: a coronavirus ward at the Barzilai Medical Center, in Ashkelon, Israel, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Freund's latest research, newly peer-reviewed and published in Communications Biology, comes from investigations that began in her lab in October 2020.
Working with doctoral students Michael Mor and Ruofan Lee, she sequenced all the B immune system cells from the blood of people who had recovered from the original COVID strain in Israel, and isolated nine antibodies that the patients produced.
Now, the top two antibodies have been tested against a range of variants, and performed well against all of them.
"According to our findings, the effectiveness of the first antibody, TAU-1109, in neutralizing the Omicron strain is 92 percent, and in neutralizing the Delta strain, 90%," Freund said.
"The second antibody, TAU-2310, neutralizes the Omicron variant with an efficacy of 84%, and the Delta variant with an efficacy of 97%," she added.
The antibodies are named TAU because they were identified at Tel Aviv University.
To ensure that her lab work was done correctly, Freund sent the antibodies to have their effectiveness against live viruses checked in laboratory cultures at the University of California San Diego, and for further testing at Bar-Ilan University's medicine faculty in the Galilee. These studies corroborated her findings.
Natalia Freund of Tel Aviv University (courtesy of Tel Aviv University)
Freund said that antibodies clearly give strong protection, as they prevent infection straight after recovery — but then they wane, and immunity reduces. In her view, this makes it logical to invest in artificially boosting antibodies, and she hopes to do exactly this with the antibodies she identified.
"For reasons we still don't yet fully understand, the level of antibodies against COVID-19 declines significantly after three months," she explained. "This is why we see people getting infected again and again, even after being vaccinated three times.
"COVID-19 infection can cause serious illness, and we know that providing antibodies in the first days following infection can stop the spread of the virus. It is therefore possible that by using effective antibody treatment, we will not have to provide booster doses to the entire population every time there is a new variant."
Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
Who is online
36 visitors
Maybe some good/hopeful news on Covid, for a change.
I don't understand it. Way beyond my scope.
Sounds like something they give to patients that have it already.
Someone alert Pfizer, they finally found something that produces antibodies.
Awesome! I hope it holds up and we can be done with this shit.
The bad news is that poor people without access to antibody treatments will simply get sick and die from Covid as the vaccination programs start to languish in favor of less expensive therapeutic programs.
Checking notes..can anyone out there please remind me if Israel has an underserved, poverty stricken population under its control??
Begins with a 'P', I think ...
Good job in turning a fantastic breakthrough to shit with a vicious comment.
You got that right
Right in the story they say this:
And here was a story from earlier this year in this USA:
HEALTH AND SCIENCE U.S. will limit next-generation Covid vaccines to high-risk people this fall if Congress doesn’t approve more funding
Am I the asshole here for worrying about a developing trend?
Vaccines cost money. Vaccines for most of the people who have been vaccinated up to this point have been free. Governments are tired of providing free vaccines. A rationalization that therapeutics are more cost effective than vaccines will give cover to cutting funding for free vaccines.
Here in NYC, school lunches were free during the Covid crisis. They are suddenly no longer free. Granted lunches are not vaccines but there is a theme developing here.
Keeping oneself safe from Covid in the West is now a matter of personal responsibility.
Now, now.
If a big portion of the population doesn't wish to vaccinate (or mask or socially distance) and will endanger their family, their friends and the rest of the more responsible population what's the use of vaccinations anyway? Isn't more than a million dead enough of an impetus?
And the Palestinians get enough aid from other nations to buy the vaccines and vaccinate their entire population. Maybe if they didn't use the money to reward and support the terrorists who have been jailed for killing Israelis, and to support the terrorists' families, and didn't pocket the aid money in their personal Swiss accounts they could afford to do what's right.
Where I come from (NYC) we would cough loudly and call this hate speech.
The record with regard to the Palestinians (living under occupation) getting vaccinated is poor:
Only 16% of West Bank, Gaza Adults Got Two Shots of COVID Vaccine - As an occupying power, Israel has an obligation to provide suitable health services to the Palestinians, says Physicians for Human Rights
I expect they will fair even worse when they are expected to foot the bill for anti-body treatments.
Every word I said is true. Do you doubt it and require me to provide sources that prove it? You support the Palestinians? Like Hamas that has in its constitution the need to kill all the Jews and take over all of "Palestine" "From the river to the sea"? Or are the Palestinians who murdered the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics your heroes? The only thing that I thank Trump for doing is what he did in support of Israel, but Biden will bend to the wishes of Congressperson Rashida Tlaib, who wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag to celebrate her election while persons of her kind accuse American lawmakers who are Jewish of having dual loyalties. I don't cough and speak softly when it comes to this topic.
Jesus, what a load of cherry picked Israeli victimhood.
Under every rock lurks an Israeli victim yet somehow the Palestinians have all been relocated to shit holes and live under Israeli occupation. What a topsy turvy world we live in!
We Americans are giving ourselves a once over for our sins of settler colonialism.
And we are giving Israel a once over for their sins of settler colonialism.
Settler colonialism? Jews have been there for thousands of years. Where do you think Jesus was born and grew up? Alaska?
The Palestinians were offered 95% of what they wanted for Palestinian statehood, and they turned it down. So they were then offered 97% of what they wanted, and they walked away from it. Sorry, Revillug, I have ZERO sympathy for the Palestinians. They just want to continue to be the poor mistreated underdogs, and the suckers cater to it.
Let's see some facts....(LINK) ->
Ahem.
You have this book that Jews wrote that sort of claims Israel has always belonged the Jews. How convenient.
It also depicts quite clearly that Jews coexisted with people who were not Jews.
I think there was a word for them..it began with the letter 'G'...
Anyway, the state the Palestinians are entitled to is a bit to the west of the one they are being offered.
I don't intend to continue this conversation unless you have read the article I linked.
I am simply not interested in your Zionist propaganda. I have heard the talking points repeated for decades.
How did poor people, especially poor people of color do in the US with proportional COVID deaths?
This is only another plot by big Pharma. I'm sticking with bleach and horse wash.