Handout IRB
The main reason why combating the corona virus is so difficult is that it mutates so quickly. But now Ticino researchers have discovered antibodies that work once morest all variants.
At the Institute for Research in Biomedicine IRB in Bellinzona, two doctoral students have made a discovery that might mean a breakthrough in the fight once morest coronaviruses.
In their analysis of ten million coronavirus sequences, Virginia Crivelli and Filippo Bianchin found that some areas of the spike protein on the virus surface – with which the virus docks to human cells – are significantly more stable than previously thought.
15 areas that don’t change
While most of the virus changes rapidly, which poses a major problem for the development of effective vaccines and drugs, “we have discovered 15 areas that are not changing,” said biomedical scientist Crivelli. “These regions are called ‘coldspots’.”
In further analyzes of samples from recovered Covid patients, the researchers also found that a few of them have specific antibodies that match these coldspots exactly. “These antibodies are very rare,” explains Bianchini. It was only possible to find them thanks to a new method.
In laboratory experiments, the antibodies found were already able to protect the cells from infection with the corona virus – even with the latest variants.
Basis for future countermeasures
However, the finding also gives hope for future developments in the virus: “It is likely that new corona viruses will appear in the future that will infect people,” says Davide Robbiani, Director of the IRB and coordinator of the study, to Radiotelevisione Svizzera (RSI).
However, the findings indicated that “it might already be possible to develop countermeasures that are effective on a broad basis once morest current and future corona viruses”.
Given the importance of the discovery, the Study from Ticino published much faster than usual in the journal «Science Immunology».
Archive image. Keystone