综合自然杂志、科学杂志、BBC新闻等网站的报道:
病毒性传染病的爆发是由于人接触了携带病毒的动物引起的,比如:
1968年在香港爆发的禽流感;
2002年的萨斯冠状病毒的爆发;
2012年 阿拉伯地区因人接触带有冠状病毒的骆驼引起的中东呼吸道综合症的爆发;
2019 年新冠肺炎的爆发,科学家们在蝙蝠身上找到了非常近似的病毒。
最近泰国科学家又在蝙蝠身上发现了其他冠状病毒和比新冠病毒更危险的尼帕病毒,感染尼帕病毒后的死亡率从40%到75%,而且无药可医。
2019年新冠病毒在全世界的流行,带来了一场紧迫的全球健康危机。虽然疫苗和两种单克隆抗体疗法已被批准紧急使用,但这些疫苗和抗体对治疗新冠病毒及其变异病毒的最后结果尚不清楚。此外,反复发生的动物病毒向人群扩散,表明新的致病性冠状病毒可能会出现在未来,需要积极的对策。
美国新罕布什尔州黎巴嫩生物制药公司从2003年感染萨斯冠状病毒的人的免疫细胞中分离了抗体,通过修改抗体的结构,研究人员创建了一种称为ADG-2的抗体,该抗体在实验室培养皿中对禁止新冠病毒的复制特别有效。
这种抗体与新冠病毒有很强的亲和力。这些抗体能够交叉中和多个萨斯相关病毒,可以使多种相关的冠状病毒失活。当给小鼠服用时,它可以阻止新冠病毒在啮齿动物的肺中繁殖,并保护动物免受呼吸系统疾病的侵害。
预防性的给予ADG-2可完全防止呼吸道感染、肺部病毒复制和肺部病理变化。总之,ADG-2代表了一个有前途的广谱治疗候选药物而且对肉瘤病毒也有效。
实验表明,ADG-2靶向治疗新冠病毒和一系列类似冠状病毒感染。科学家建议可以利用此方法来研制对未来冠状病毒的疫苗。
NEWS 29 JANUARY 2021
COVID research updates: An antibody that clamps onto the COVID virus’s ‘Achilles heel’
Nature wades through the literature on the new coronavirus — and summarizes key papers as they appear.
29 January — An antibody that clamps onto the COVID virus’s ‘Achilles heel’
Scientists have engineered an antibody that effectively disables SARS-CoV-2 and closely related coronaviruses.
Laura Walker at the biopharmaceutical company Adimab in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and her colleagues isolated antibodies from the immune cells of a person who had recovered from a 2003 infection with the virus SARS-CoV, which is related to SARS-CoV-2 (C. G. Rappazzo et al. Science https://doi.org/fsbc; 2021). By tinkering with the structure of the antibodies, the researchers created one, called ADG-2, that was particularly effective at disabling SARS-CoV-2 in a lab dish.
The engineered antibody also disabled a variety of related coronaviruses.When given to mice, it stopped SARS-CoV-2 from reproducing in the rodents’ lungs and protected the animals from respiratory disease.
Experiments showed that ADG-2 targets receptors found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 and a range of similar coronaviruses. The authors dub this receptor the Achilles heel of coronaviruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2, and suggest that this vulnerability could be exploited to make vaccines against emerging coronaviruses.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00502-w