Neutralizing antibodies are considered to be an important means of treating COVID-19, and at the third World Top Scientists Forum, which opened today, Xie Xiaoliang, winner of the 2015 Alborne Medical Award, took the stage to reveal the progress of his team in antibody research. When talking about the importance of research and development, Xie Xiaoliang said that if the drug is administered according to the dose of antibodies used by US President Trump after infection, then it is difficult for biopharmaceutical companies and ordinary people around the world to bear: "Therefore, we need to study more powerful antibodies." ”
Xie Xiaoliang said that in addition to the scholar professor, he is also the co-founder of a biomedical company. In the global neutralization antibody research, his team is also in a relatively high position.
Xie Xiaoliang said that the current vaccine is a hot spot in clinical research, but the vaccine is mainly for prevention, as the winter approaches, the number of infected people around the world continues to hit a new high, they urgently need to treat the drug, neutralizing antibodies for these patients to bring hope.
Just as acids can be neutralized with alkali; when viruses come, we can use neutralizing antibodies to fight viruses. The neutralizing antibody comes from the convalescent plasma, but the plasma supply is very limited, and a patient needs to be treated with about 1200 ml of the recovered patient's blood. Therefore, scientists have been working to identify antibodies in recovered patients and then make them in large quantities outside the human body.
Xie Xiaoliang said that Chinese scholars reported the virus to the world less than two weeks after the discovery of the new crown virus, making great contributions to the study of the virus by the scientific community around the world. His team's antibody research began immediately after the Spring Festival: "On February 2, we came to Beijing You'an Hospital, and the president immediately agreed to cooperate with us to provide blood samples from the recovered. ”
At present, in the global neutralizing antibody research, Eli Lilly and Regeneron are in the lead, and Xie Xiaoliang's team is also in the forefront.
Xie Xiaoliang said that the scientific community must develop more powerful neutralizing antibodies. In his speech, he revealed that AFTER the infection with the new crown virus, US President Trump injected 8 grams of related antibodies to treat; although according to the latest research, only 2 grams may be needed to achieve the same therapeutic effect. But Xie Xiaoliang believes that this is still too much. Antibodies used to treat cancer typically require only a dose of about 0.2 grams, he said. If COVID-19 antibodies need to use up to 2 grams, it will be unbearable for the world – on the one hand, biopharmaceutical companies do not have the ability to make so many antibodies for patients around the world; and for ordinary people, the price of so many antibodies is also unaffordable for them: "So, we need to develop more powerful antibodies." ”
Xie Xiaoliang revealed that they have found 20 effective neutralizing antibodies from 400 recombinant proteins, which can effectively bind to the new crown virus and avoid the effects of mutations. Animal experiments have shown that this neutralizing antibody has a high preventive and therapeutic effect on the new crown virus. In the trial, mice injected with antibodies at a dose of 20 mg per kilogram of body weight decreased their viral load by a factor of 2500 compared with the control group. Further studies have shown that the effective dose of the antibody can be as low as 10 mg or even 5 mg per kilogram. If as a temporary precaution, then, the prophylaxis period of this antibody can reach about 3 weeks; if further processed with modified proteins, the validity period can reach about 3 months.
In the summary stage of the speech, Xie Xiaoliang responded to an important theme of the World's Top Scientists Forum with one sentence. He stressed that only science, not politics, can give us hope and save us from the scourge of COVID-19.
Author: Zhang Yi
Edit: Wang Xing