Nanobodies That Nullify COVID-19 Variants Identified

The discovery of multiple nanobodies that effectively blocked infection with different COVID-19 variants could pave the way for new treatments.

A novel strategy for identifying potent miniature antibodies, so-called nanobodies, against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants are developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

The findings are described in the journals Nature Communications and Science Advances.

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‘Several potent nanobodies derived from an alpaca immunized with COVID-19 virus antigens are identified in the labs.’

“With the help of advanced laboratory techniques, we were able to identify a panel of nanobodies that very effectively neutralized several variants of SARS-CoV-2,” says Gerald McInerney, professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, and joint senior author of both studies.

Despite the roll-out of vaccines and antivirals, the need for effective therapeutics against severe COVID-19 infection remains high.

Nanobodies are fragments of antibodies that occur naturally in camelids and can be used as promising therapeutic candidates due to their several advantages over conventional antibodies.

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The first report describes a single nanobody, Fu2 (named after the alpaca Funny), that significantly reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures and mice.

Using electron cryo-microscopy, the researchers found that Fu2 naturally binds to two separate sites on the viral spike, thus inhibiting the virus’ ability to enter the host cell.

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Researchers next delved deeper into the alpaca’s nanobody repertoire by combining a range of advanced laboratory techniques and computational methods, resulting in a library of nanobodies described in detail.

They also revealed additional nanobodies that in cell cultures and mice effectively cross-neutralized both the founder and beta variant of SARS-CoV-2 and even neutralized the more distantly related SARS-CoV-1.

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Currently, researchers are applying the same techniques to identify which nanobodies from this set are best able to neutralize Omicron, the now dominating SARS-CoV-2 variant.

Once established, these libraries can be expanded and mined for nanobodies that neutralize new emerging variants.

Source-Medindia