A team of Indian scientists has developed a unique antibody that maintains its neutralising potency against most key Covid-19 variants, including Omicron sub-lineages.
Dr Anmol Chandele of the ICGEB-EMORY Vaccine Program at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi, and lead author of the study, told The Indian Express via email, “Studies such as these showcase India’s capacity to do cutting edge work. Making human monoclonal antibodies is a challenging process that requires a high degree of expertise in human immunology, molecular biology and virology.”
“To bring everything together from clinical samples, identifying the precise cell that recognises the virus, isolating singles, cloning the antibody genes it is expressing, making the antibody and then screening it for its function is important for India to generate such in-country capacity. With labs such as the ICGEB-Emory Vaccine Centre establishing such platforms allows India to pivot towards such antibody-based therapies for any infection in the future — while this antibody is specific to Covid, its impact goes beyond Covid,” she added.
“This antibody is unique. Many antibodies that were reported abrogated the virus’ ‘receptor binding domain’ with the human ACE2 receptor — which made them ‘ACE2 blockers’. But as the virus learnt, evolved and mutated, it managed to evade a lot of the monoclonal and vaccine-based immunity,” said Dr Chandele.
“This antibody clone that we discovered does not bind in that region — it binds to what we call the outer RBD region. This region of the virus is conserved across most key variants and sub-lineages of Omicron and so, our antibody continues to neutralise without losing its potency. This was why this study was accepted in a high impact journal,” she added.
Responding to a query as to how significant this development was considering the present Covid variant was apparently mild and treated by anti-inflammatory drugs, Dr Chandele said the virus has not been eradicated yet. “There will always be a portion of the population who will be vulnerable to this now seemingly-mild virus — and so, if there is one lesson that Covid taught us, it is that we should always be prepared, at least for vulnerable individuals that will to be impacted,” Dr Chandele said.
Scientists from ICGEB, New Delhi and Indian Council Of Medical Research-National Institute of Malaria Research (ICMR-NIMR, New Delhi) collaborated with Emory Vaccine Center (Atlanta, USA) on this study, which was published in Science Advances on October 5.
The study was led by Dr Anmol Chandele and Kaja Murali Krishna of the ICGEB-Emory Vaccine Program, in collaboration with Dr Amit Sharma, ICGEB, Dr Rafi Ahmed and scientists from Emory Vaccine Center. It was funded by ICMR and supported by the Indian government’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), which have jointly filed a patent for the antibody clone.
Researchers discovered this antibody after single-cell screening memory B cells derived from individuals who had recovered from Covid-19 infection in India. This human monoclonal antibody was tested against several Covid variants including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and the recently emerging and highly infectious Omicron sub-lineages like BA.1, BA.2, BA.2.12, BA.4 and BA.5. Scientists found that the antibody maintains its neutralisation potency against all these variants of concern.