作者
Divya Gupta, Farhan Ahmed, Dixit Tandel, Haripriya Parthasarathy, Dhiviya Vedagiri, Vishal Sah, B Krishna Mohan, Siddarth Daga, Rafiq Ahmad Khan, Chiranjeevi Kondiparthi, Prabhudas Savari, Sandesh Jain, Jaya Daga, Shashikala Reddy, Nooruddin Khan, Krishnan Harinivas Harshan
发表日期
2021/3/10
期刊
BioRxiv
页码范围
2021.03. 09.434030
出版商
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
简介
The ongoing pandemic, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 has taken the world, and especially the scientific community by storm. While vaccines are being introduced into the market, there is also a pressing need to find potential drugs and therapeutic modules. Remdesivir is one of the antivirals currently being used with a limited window of action. As more drugs are being vetted, passive immunotherapy in the form of neutralizing antibodies can provide immediate action to combat the increasing numbers of COVID-positive cases. Herein, we demonstrate that equines hyper-immunized with chemically inactivated SARS-CoV-2 generate high titers of antibody with a strong virus neutralizing potential. ELISA performed with pooled antisera displayed highest immunoglobulin titer on 42 days post-immunization, at 1:51,200 dilutions. F(ab’)2 immunoglobulin fragments generated from the pools also showed very high, antigen-specific affinity at 1:102,400 dilutions. Finally, in vitro virus neutralization assays confirmed that different pools of F(ab’)2 fragments could successfully neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with titers well above 25,000, indicating the potential of this strategy in treating severe COVID-19 cases with high titers. The F(ab’)2 was able to cross neutralize another SARS-CoV-2 strain, demonstrating its efficacy against the emerging viral variants and the importance of this approach in our efforts of eradication of COVID-19. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that virus-neutralizing antibodies raised in equines can potentially be used as a treatment regimen in the form of effective passive immunotherapy to combat COVID-19.
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