The "Omi kerong" U.S. accounts for more than 70% Of the Chinese research team said that neutralizing antibodies are still effective

According to data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rapidly spreading "Omikejong" new coronavirus variant is replacing "Delta" as the dominant epidemic strain in the United States, accounting for 73% of sequenced cases. The effectiveness of existing vaccines and drugs against the "Omikejung" variant is also of great concern.

According to the US CDC data, as of the week of December 18, "Delta" accounted for 26.6% of the sequenced cases, while just the previous week, "Delta" cases accounted for 87%, "Omikeron" accounted for only 12.6%.

At present, "Omi Kerong" has been proved to be extremely contagious, but the severity of the disease it causes is still unknown. WHO infectious disease experts warn that even if "Omi kerong" does prove to be milder than Delta, it could still put pressure on the health care system and could lead to a surge in hospitalizations and deaths due to the speed of its spread.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swanminathan said at a news conference on Monday: "The Omikejung variant was able to successfully evade part of the immune response and has been shown to spread faster than the Delta variant and also to infect people who have recovered from COVID-19." ”

Because "Omilon" has a strong immune escape ability, it makes it difficult to resist the virus infection with most of the two doses of vaccine that have been vaccinated. But laboratory data show that vaccine enhancers can significantly increase levels of neutralizing antibodies against "Omi kerong".

Moderna said Monday that preliminary data from lab tests found that vaccine 50ug boosters currently used in the U.S. and elsewhere can increase levels of neutralizing antibodies against "Omilon" by a factor of 37 compared to pre-boost levels; a 100ug booster dose increases neutralizing antibody levels by a factor of 83.

However, the company said it would remain committed to developing a specialized enhanced vaccine for "Omi Kerong", which is expected to enter clinical trials in early 2022.

Earlier this month, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech also said that vaccination with enhanced vaccines can provide strong protection against "Omilon". The companies are also testing enhanced vaccines for children under 6 months to 5 years of age.

In addition to vaccines, whether neutralizing antibody drugs, as an effective means of coping with the new crown virus, are still effective against "Omi Kerong" has also aroused concern. Earlier this month, China approved the first neutralizing antibody therapy for the new crown, a "special drug" for the combination of amphavir monoclonal antibody/romizumab. Clinical trial data show that the therapy can reduce the hospitalization rate and mortality rate of high-risk COVID-19 outpatients by 80%, and the main role is mainly treatment. At the same time, antibodies can remain in the human body for 9 to 12 months, which also has a certain effect on preventing infection.

Zhang Linqi, a professor at Tsinghua University School of Medicine and director of the Global Health and Infectious Disease Research Center, said in a recent interview with CCTV that antibodies are the natural weapons of the human body, and researchers "looked for needles in a haystack" to screen out two antibodies with strong blocking power against the new crown virus. "The drug is infused intravenously, 40 minutes before and after the whole process, and the effect is immediately after the injection into the body." Zhang Linqi said.

He also said that after evaluation, it was found that when neutralizing the "Omilon" strain, one of the antibodies remained active and the other antibody lost some of its activity. "But since we're a combination punch, the two antibodies added together still maintain the ability to neutralize the Omiljung mutant." So we have great confidence in the ability of our antibody drugs to suppress emerging viruses. Zhang Linqi said.

While the new drug has been approved for marketing, there is no exact time to bring it fully to market. Zhang Linqi said that the relevant departments and the corresponding technical teams are working around the clock to promote the process. In the future, the team will further excavate the entire virus and antibody interaction mechanism and virus mutation law, and excavate the "spare tire antibody" so that the "special drug" can play a role in effectiveness, broad spectrum and durability.