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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,077

Passive Antibody as Defense Against Biological Weapons

The potential threat of biological warfare with a specific agent is proportional to the susceptibility of the population to that agent. Preventing disease after exposure to a biological agent is partially a function of the immunity of the exposed individual. The only available countermeasure that can provide immediate immunity against a biological agent is passive antibody. Unlike vaccines, which require time to induce protective immunity and depend on the host’s ability to mount an immune response, passive antibody can theoretically confer protection regardless of the immune status of the host. Passive antibody therapy has substantial advantages over antimicrobial agents and other measures for postexposure prophylaxis, including low toxicity and high specific activity. Specific antibodies are active against the major agents of bioterrorism, including anthrax, smallpox, botulinum toxin, tularemia, and plague. This article proposes a biological defense initiative based on developing, producing, and stockpiling specific antibody reagents that can be used to protect the population against biological warfare threats.

Defense strategies against biological weapons include such measures as enhanced epidemiologic surveillance, vaccination, and use of antimicrobial agents, with the important caveat that the final line of defense is the immune system of the exposed individual. The potential threat of biological warfare and bioterrorism is inversely proportional to the number of immune persons in the targeted population. Thus, biological agents are potential weapons only against populations with a substantial proportion of susceptible persons. For example, smallpox virus would not be considered a useful biological weapon against a population universally immunized with vaccinia.

Vaccination can reduce the susceptibility of a population against specific threats provided that a safe vaccine exists that can induce a protective response. Unfortunately, inducing a protective response by vaccination may take longer than the time between exposure and onset of disease. Moreover, many vaccines require multiple doses to achieve a protective immune response, which would limit their usefulness in an emergency vaccination program to provide rapid prophylaxis after an attack. In fact, not all vaccine recipients mount a protective response, even after receiving the recommended immunization schedule. Persons with impaired immunity are often unable to generate effective response to vaccination, and certain vaccines may be contraindicated for them.

Vir Biotechnology reports early progress in antibody treatment for Covid-19

Vir Biotechnology, a San Francisco-based biotechnology firm, said Wednesday that laboratory testing showed two of its antibody drugs appeared to neutralize the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 and that it would pursue testing them in people.

The company said that human tests of the drugs could begin in three to five months, putting it roughly in line with two other efforts to produce anti-coronavirus antibodies. Regeneron, based in Tarrytown, N.Y., has said that its antibodies could enter trials by early summer — and that its treatment, if it proves effective, could be available for some uses in the fall. Eli Lilly, which is developing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with AbCellera, a Vancouver biotech, has said it hopes to begin human tests in four months.

“Stopping this disease will take a combination of prevention and treatment approaches,” Vir CEO George Scangos said in a statement. “At Vir, we are fortunate that our existing antibody platform gave us a running start against COVID-19, and we have the internal and partnered capabilities to work on multiple approaches.”

Shrimp vendor at Wuhan market may be coronavirus ‘patient zero’

A shrimp peddler at the Chinese market where the coronavirus pandemic likely began has been identified as one of the first victims of the disease — and possibly “patient zero.”

The 57-year-old woman, identified by the Wall Street Journal as Wei Guixian, was the first person from the now-notorious Huanan market in Wuhan to test positive for the deadly bug.

She was at work Dec. 10 when she developed what she thought were cold symptoms, Chinese outlet The Paper reported. So she walked to a small local clinic for treatment and then went back to work — likely spreading the contagion.

Researchers take a big step towards a comprehensive single-cell atlas

A large team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in and around Hangzhou, China, has taken a very large step toward the creation of a comprehensive human single-cell atlas. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they sequenced the RNA of over a half-million single cells donated by volunteers and processed the information to present it in a way that could be used in a single-cell atlas.

All of the cells in the human body carry the same basic genetic information—they differ in which genes are expressed. Those genes that are expressed define the function of a given cell. For some time, have wanted an atlas that would describe which genes are expressed in cells in all parts of the body. Such an atlas would help scientists better understand the functions of cells and how they work together, in addition to saving time on new research efforts. Atlases have been created for some , but currently, there is no single atlas to cover all of the in the human body. Creating such an atlas would require much time and effort over many years, as the has over 30 trillion cells, after all. In this new effort, the researchers have taken a large step toward that goal by providing gene expression information for over 500,000 cells from different parts of the body (and some from fetal tissue), including all of the major organs.

The work involved first obtaining the and then processing them. To that end, the cells were first isolated by putting some in a centrifuge and using enzymes with others. Once isolated, each of the cells were sequenced using a special tool the team previously developed called Microwell-seq—it allows for fast sequencing of large numbers of cells. In all, the team sequenced cells from 60 types of tissue. The researchers then generated a map using a method they devised for classifying cell information. The map and its underlying data form the basis of what could become a full, comprehensive single-cell database.