Ab8 antibody effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 in animal models

[jim mcnamara]

TL;DR

Preliminary animal models show very good response to Ab8 as prophylaxis and treatment of Covid-19

Paper preprint- accepted by Cell:
Journal (Pre-proof) High potency of a bivalent human VH domain in SARS-CoV-2 animal models

Wei Li, Alexandra Schäfer, Swarali S. Kulkarni, Xianglei Liu, David R. Martinez,Chuan Chen, Zehua Sun, Sarah R. Leist, Aleksandra Drelich, Liyong Zhang, MarcinL. Ura, Alison Berezuk, Sagar Chittori, Karoline Leopold, Dhiraj Mannar, Shanti S.Srivastava, Xing Zhu, Eric C. Peterson, Chien-Te Tseng, John W. Mellors, DarrylFalzarano, Sriram Subramaniam, Ralph S. Baric, Dimiter S. DimitrovPII:S0092-8674(20)31148-X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.09.007

Popular version:
https://scitechdaily.com/ab8-covid-...-completely-neutralizes-the-sars-cov-2-virus/

Pitt researchers who created a similar tiny antibody to previous Coronavirus colds, have been researching something similar for Covid-19.
In animals - mice and hamsters - the Ab8 antibody prevents infection and is effective in curing the disease in progress.

@Ygggdrasil can probably explain the details of these Ab8 antibodies better than I could.

 

[berkeman]

Very interesting and promising. What's the route for prophylactic treatment? Periodic IV infusions? Periodic IM injections? I looked in the popular article, but was not able to find it.

 

[jim mcnamara]

The size of the Ab8 particles is so small that the article mentions the reasonable possibility of a nasal spray, plus Ab8 does not show affinity for human cells - which means less possibility for side effects. All per the article.

 

[jim mcnamara]

The reason I want someone more knowledgeable in this field: The paper was submitted to Cell in May and just approved this week. I thought that Covid-19 articles like this were being fast-tracked, so maybe there were some concerns about the content. @Ygggdrasil , for example, is far more likely to know.

 

[berkeman]

The size of the Ab8 particles is so small that the article mentions the reasonable possibility of a nasal spray, plus Ab8 does not show affinity for human cells - which means less possibility for side effects. All per the article.

Thanks. Yeah, that is mentioned in the Cell article, but not in the popular article. Very interesting!