科学家们已经在实验室里鉴定出一种抗体，他们说这种抗体可以预防这种新型疾病冠状病毒感染细胞。该小组希望这种抗体能够用于治疗由病毒引起的COVID-19疾病。
自去年年底冠状病毒开始在中国中部城市武汉感染人类以来，已有超过350万人被诊断患有该疾病COVID-19，100多万人康复，近248，000人死亡，据约翰·霍普金斯大学称。
该团队的研究发表在杂志上 自然传播一直在探索所谓的单克隆抗体是否能帮助COVID-19患者。目前还没有针对这种疾病的疫苗或特殊治疗方法。单克隆抗体是在实验室中产生的一种蛋白质，它可以结合体内的一种特定物质。这些类型的抗体模仿免疫系统对威胁的反应，并用于治疗某些形式的癌症。
2020年5月3日，印度钦奈，一架印度空军直升机落下花瓣，医院工作人员聚集在一起，向所有参与抗击新型冠状病毒传播的人致敬。科学家们在实验室里发现了一种抗体，他们说这种抗体可以防止病毒感染细胞。
一种名为47D11的抗体被发现与一种被称为“非典”的新型冠状病毒结合变异系数-2，用于进入身体，并以中和病原体的方式阻断它。
为了进行他们的研究，研究人员使用了生物学被调整的老鼠来制造类似于人类的抗体。他们给动物注射导致非典的病毒的尖峰蛋白，中东呼吸综合征和一些用于侵入细胞的普通感冒。这些病毒是大病毒的成员冠状病毒病原体家族，也包括非典变异系数-2、引起的臭虫COVID-19岁。小鼠产生了51种抗体，能够中和注射的刺突蛋白冠状病毒。这一阶段的研究是在非典之前完成的变异系数-2在2019年末首次引起卫生官员的注意。
该小组后来观察了抗体是否能中和非典变异系数-2和非典-变异系数在实验室样本，发现47D11确实如此。
合著者Berend-乌得勒支大学感染与免疫副教授扬·博施程序他在一份声明中解释说，这项研究是建立在他的团队之前在针对非典的抗体方面所做的工作基础上的变异系数，引起非典的病毒。
“利用这一系列非典——变异系数抗体，我们鉴定了一种抗体，它也能中和非典的感染变异系数-2[COVID-19病毒)。这种中和抗体有可能改变受感染宿主的感染过程，支持病毒清除或保护暴露于病毒的未感染个体。"
合著者弗兰克Grosveld鹿特丹伊拉斯谟医学中心的细胞生物学学院教授说:“这一发现为进一步研究这种抗体的特性并开始开发其潜力提供了坚实的基础COVID-19次治疗。"
没有参与这项研究的专家对这一发现表示欢迎，但也指出了这项研究的局限性。
苏塞克斯大学基因组损伤与稳定中心(GDSC)的分子遗传学教授托尼·卡尔在一份声明中说:“对传染性的阻断完全是基于细胞培养工作，但是之前的文献支持这种试剂应该作为一种潜在的治疗方法进一步探索的提议。”
伦敦国王学院的药学客座教授彭妮·沃德说，这种抗体有可能被用于预防和治疗非典-CoV-2感染，“然而，如果不在动物模型中进行研究，尚不清楚这些方法中哪一种可能最有效。”
她说，如果研究小组能够证明这种抗体能够预防和治疗动物体内的COVID19，这一发现将会更加有力。
“我们无法得出该产品在以下方面有效的结论活泼的沃德说。
伦敦卫生和热带医学学院的病毒学教授波利·罗伊说，该团队创建的数据“非常好”，并强调他们在这方面的工作是众所周知的冠状病毒。
伦敦大都会大学分子免疫学教授加里·麦克林说:“因为这不是在人体内进行的，就我们所知，抗体甚至也没有在人体内发现。然而，这是一个很好的研究，可以提供一个潜力生物治疗可以用来治疗COVID-19岁。
这项研究补充了一些独立的项目，这些项目着眼于一项被称为恢复期血浆疗法一个人的血液从COVID-19号被植入当前患者体内，希望能帮助他们战胜疾病。
教授Babak Javid，首席调查员清华北京大学医学院和英国剑桥大学医院传染病顾问评论道:“这是一项非常有趣的研究。最广为吹捧的实验性(尽管尚未证实)治疗方法之一COVID是使用康复血浆。"
他说:“然而，康复期血浆的使用很难规模化，也很难作为一种治疗手段广泛应用，而且由于它是一种血液制品，因此存在一些潜在的安全性问题。因此，科学家们对识别能够中和非典病毒的抗体产生了浓厚的兴趣。这是因为我们能够制造大量的单个抗体(称为单克隆抗体或单克隆抗体)作为一种药物治疗COVID。单克隆抗体也没有使用血液制品的安全性问题。"
英国雷丁大学细胞微生物学副教授西蒙·克拉克(Simon Clarke)在一份声明中说:“像这样的抗体可以在实验室中制造，而不是从人的血液中纯化出来，可以想象它可以用来治疗疾病，但这还没有得到证实。
“尽管这是一个有趣的发展，但给人注射抗体并非没有风险，还需要进行适当的临床试验。”
ANTIBODY THAT BLOCKS CORONAVIRUS FROM INFECTING CELLS DISCOVERED BY SCIENTISTS
Scientists have identified an antibody in a lab that they say can prevent the novel coronavirus from infecting cells. The team hopes the antibody could be used to create treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Since the coronavirus began infecting people in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, more than 3.5 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, over a million have recovered and almost 248,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The team, whose research was published in the journal Nature Communications, have been exploring whether what are known as monoclonal antibodies could help patients with COVID-19. Currently there is no vaccine or specific treatment for the disease. Monoclonal antibodies are a type of protein created in a lab which can bind to a specific substance in the body. These types of antibodies mimic how the immune system responds to a threat, and are used to treat some forms of cancer.
Omandurar Medical College hospital staff gather as an Indian Air Force helicopter drops flower petals to pay tribute to all those involved in the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus, in Chennai, India, on May 3, 2020. Scientists have identified an antibody in a lab that they say can prevent the virus from infecting cells.
An antibody named 47D11 was found to bind to the spike protein which the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, uses to enter the body, and block it in a way that neutralizes the pathogen.
To carry out their study, the researchers used mice whose biology was tweaked to create antibodies similar to those found in humans. They injected the animals with spike proteins that the viruses which cause SARS, MERS, and some types of common cold use to invade cells. These viruses are members of the large coronavirus family of pathogens which also includes SARS-CoV-2, the bug which causes COVID-19. The mice produced 51 antibodies capable of neutralizing the spike protein of the injected coronaviruses. This stage of the research was done before SARS-CoV-2 first came to the attention of health officials in late 2019.
The team later watched to see if the antibodies would neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV in lab samples, and found 47D11 did.
Co-author Berend-Jan Bosch, associate professor of the Utrecht University Infection and Immunity programme, explained in a statement that the research builds on work his team had done previously on antibodies which can target SARS-CoV, the virus which causes SARS.
"Using this collection of SARS-CoV antibodies, we identified an antibody that also neutralizes infection of SARS-CoV-2 [the COVID-19 virus] in cultured cells. Such a neutralizing 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."
Co-author Frank Grosveld, Academy Professor of Cell Biology at the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, said: "This discovery provides a strong foundation for additional research to characterize this antibody and begin development as a potential COVID-19 treatment."
Experts not involved in the research welcomed the findings, but also pointed out the study's limitations.
Tony Carr, professor of molecular genetics in the Genome Damage and Stability Centre (GDSC) at the University of Sussex, said in a statement: "The block to infectivity is entirely based on cell culture work, but the previous literature supports the proposal that this reagent should be explored further as a potential treatment."
Penny Ward, visiting professor in Pharmaceutical Medicine at King's College London, said the antibody has the potential to be used to prevent and treat SARS-CoV-2 infection, "however without studying this in an animal model, it is not clear which of these approaches might be most efficient."
The findings would have been more robust if the team were able to show the antibody could prevent and treat COVID19 in animals, she said.
"It is not possible to conclude that the product will be effective in vivo in humans," said Ward.
Polly Roy, professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the data the team created is "very good," and highlighted they are well-known for their work on coronaviruses.
Gary McLean, professor in Molecular Immunology at London Metropolitan University, said: "Because it is not done in people and the antibody is not even found in people as far as we know there are limitations. However it is a nicely done study that could provide a potential biotherapeutic that could be used to treat COVID-19.
The research complements separate projects looking at whether a century-old technique known as convalescent plasma therapy, where the blood from a person who has recovered from COVID-19 is inserted into a current patient in the hope it will help them beat the disease.
Professor Babak Javid, principal investigator at Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Beijing, and consultant in infectious diseases at Cambridge University Hospitals in the U.K., commented: "This is a very interesting study. One of the most widely touted experimental (though not yet proven) treatments for COVID is the use of convalescent plasma."
He said: "However, use of convalescent plasma is difficult to scale and make widely available as a treatment and has some potential safety concerns since it is a blood product. Therefore there has been intense scientific interest in identifying individual antibodies that can also neutralize SARS-CoV2. This is because we are able to manufacture large quantities of individual antibodies (known as monoclonal antibodies or mAbs) at scale as a pharmaceutical treatment for COVID. Monoclonal antibodies also don't have the safety concerns of administering blood products."
Simon Clarke, associate professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading, U.K., said in a statement: "Antibodies like this can be made in the lab instead of purified from people's blood and could conceivably be used as a treatment for disease, but this has not yet been demonstrated.
"While it's an interesting development, injecting people with antibodies is not without risk and it would need to undergo proper clinical trials."
