Researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University have developed a new synthetic antibody to counter Omicron. The preprint “Combating the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant with non-Omicron neutralizing antibodies” is published on bioRxiv as it awaits peer review. Interviewed by the South China Morning Post, Professor Huang Jinghe, the lead scientist, said that she accidentally synthesized the antibody from two natural antibodies that immune cells produce naturally in response to SARS-CoV-2. Individually, each one was ineffective, but conjoined, it seems to work. She was actually researching a different infectious disease and found the man-made (woman-made!) antibody to be powerful; and then she tried it out on Omicron. She claims that, since it works well against original SARS and every present version of SARS-CoV-2, it has an excellent chance of working against future variants.
The report describes that they manufactured “bispecific antibodies” by fusing single-chain variable fragments of two antibodies. “Surprisingly, eight out of ten bispecific antibodies showed high binding affinity to the Omicron receptor binding domain (RBD) and exhibited extreme breadth and potency against pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) including Omicron, as well as authentic Omicron(+R346K) variants.” Omicron infection was “inhibited… by binding to the ACE2 binding site.”
