Israel isolates corona antibody

JERUSALEM: The Israeli defence minister has said the country has isolated a key coronavirus antibody at its main biological research laboratory, 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".

It quoted IIBR Director Shmuel Shapira as saying that the antibody formula was being patented, after which an international manufacturer would be sought to mass-produce it. The IIBR has been leading Israeli efforts to develop a treatment and vaccine for the coronavirus, including the testing of blood from those who recovered from Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. Antibodies in such samples — immune-system proteins that are residues of successfully overcoming the coronavirus — are widely seen as a key to developing a possible cure.

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.

In a major breakthrough, scientists have discovered an antibody that prevents the invasion of novel coronavirus into human cells and offers hope of a treatment for the contagious pathogen which has killed over 235,000 to date.

According to a Daily Mail news report, the antibody, known as 47D11, targets the deadly virus' infamous 'spike protein', which it uses to hook onto cells and insert its genetic material.

Researchers and health experts around the world claim that the antibody – if injected into humans – could alter the 'course of infection' or protect an uninfected person exposed to someone with the virus.

The European research team, according to the publication, identified the antibody from 51 cell lines from mice that had been engineered to carry human genes.

Tests conducted in various mice cells reveal that 47D11 binds to this protein and prevents it from hooking on – effectively neutralising it.

The news report states that the antibody targets the novel coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, known as SARS-CoV-1.

However, scientists claim that it can also neutralise SARS-CoV-2, which is from the same family of coronaviruses as SARS-CoV-1.

“This research is developed on the work our groups have done in the past on antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV that emerged in 2002/2003,” co-lead author Professor Berend-Jan Bosch at Utrecht University told the UK paper.

“Using this collection of SARS-CoV antibodies, we identified an antibody that also neutralises infection of SARS-CoV-2 in cultured cells.

“Such a neutralising antibody has potential to alter the course of infection in the infected host, support virus clearance or protect an uninfected individual that is exposed to the virus,” he added.