A joint research group of Professor Tomonami Yasuda of Hiroshima University Graduate School and Kyoto University will incapacitate the virus by binding to multiple new coronavirus mutants in collaboration with Shobara Red Cross Hospital and Prefectural Hiroshima Hospital in Hiroshima Prefecture. We have newly developed a technology to artificially produce a completely human antibody in 10 days.
Antibodies that bind to and neutralize viruses are called neutralizing antibodies and are expected to be a silver bullet for the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19).Techniques for artificially producing antibodies by extracting antibody genes that bind to the virus from the blood of people infected with the new coronavirus have been reported so far.However, in order to obtain an antibody having high neutralizing activity, it took time and effort to prepare and select a candidate antibody from a large number of blood samples.
The research group preferentially selected blood samples of critically ill patients who showed high neutralizing activity more than 2 weeks after infection with the new coronavirus, and artificially selected human IgG antibodies (immunoglobulins) that bind to the new coronavirus. Created in.As a result of selecting and analyzing 32 types of antibodies that strongly bind to the conventional new type coronavirus (Wuhan type), 97% of them also strongly bind to the British mutant (N501Y mutation) and 63% are multiplex. It was revealed that it also binds to a mutant strain of South Africa (K417N / E484K / N501Y mutation).
This time, we clarified the characteristics of patients who possess the target antibody, devised a work process, and obtained high-performance neutralizing antibodies from several patients in 10 days.This is the first successful acquisition of a neutralizing antibody that also binds to multiple mutant strains in Japan.
In the future, we aim to commercialize the acquired neutralizing antibody at an early stage and to acquire neutralizing antibody against new multiple mutant viruses such as Indian mutant strains.It is expected that this technology will lead to a reduction in the mortality rate of infected people and the containment of infection.