The antibody, discovered by molecular biologists in China, can be used to prevent disease in groups such as families or kindergartens. This was announced by the virologist Anatoly Altstein on Wednesday, December 1, in an interview with Izvestia.
“There is no scientific article on this topic yet. They write that it is capable of neutralizing all strains of the virus, but there is no evidence that it neutralizes to the same extent. I would not call this an over-discovery. But this shows that there is a certain region in the S-protein, which is common for different strains, but we knew this, because the vaccine against the Wuhan strain works against others, but to a lesser extent. It works well against the British, but worse against the South African and Delta. This suggests that there is a region in the protein that is important for the reaction to neutralize all variants of the virus, ”said Altstein.
At the same time, the virologist doubted that this development carries something extremely important. However, such antibodies can be used to prevent diseases, for example, in the family or in kindergarten. If the child is sick, then the whole group can be immunized, and these antibodies will be in the body for about a month.
“This approach is called prophylaxis serum. Serum is antibodies in serum, but this method is not particularly used in case of coronavirus, ”concluded Altstein.
On November 30, molecular biologists from China discovered the 35B5 antibody, which can bind to the most stable region in the structure of the S-protein of the coronavirus and neutralize all its strains, including Omicron.
On the same day, Chinese experts named three features of the Omicron strain. The first feature is a large number of mutations, as a result of which it was formed. Another is that it spreads faster than others and can quickly become dominant in the populations it enters. A significant difference between Omicron can also be its ability to overcome the immunity to COVID-19, formed in the human body.
