“Inescapable” COVID-19 Antibody Discovery – Neutralizes All Known SARS-CoV-2 Strains

Antibodies Surrounding SARS-CoV-2 Particle

An artistic rendering of antibodies surrounding a SARS-CoV-2 particle.

An antibody therapy that appears to neutralize all known SARS-CoV-2 strains, and other coronaviruses, was developed with a little help from structural biologist Jay Nix.

Lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines are allowing us to feel optimistic again, after more than a year of anxiety and tragedy. But vaccines are only one side of the coin – we also need treatments that can prevent severe disease after someone has been infected. In the past year, there has been significant progress in developing effective antibody-based therapies, and three drugs are currently available through emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration.

Sotrovimab, the newest antibody therapy, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology after a large collaborative study by scientists from across the nation discovered a natural antibody (in the blood of a SARS survivor, back in 2003) that has remarkable breadth and efficacy.

Experiments showed that this antibody, called S309, neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 strains – including newly emerged mutants that can now “escape” from previous antibody therapies – as well as the closely related original SARS-CoV virus.

Jay Nix, leader of the Molecular Biology Consortium based at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), used beamlines at the ALS and beamlines at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource to perform X-ray crystallography on samples of survivor-derived antibodies during an early phase of the study. His work, alongside other crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy findings, helped generate detailed structural maps of how these antibodies bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, allowing the wider team to select the most promising contenders and advance them to cell culture- and animal-based studies. Following exciting lab results, the developers designed sotrovimab based on the structure of S309, and evaluated it in clinical trials.

The FDA granted an EUA for sotrovimab in late May after trials showed that people with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections who received an infusion of the therapy had an 85% reduction in rates of hospitalization or death, compared with placebo.

But the team didn’t stop there.

Understanding that new mutations could arise and that a novel pathogenic coronavirus could emerge from an animal-human crossover event, the scientists began a follow-up study to deeply explore what factors make antibodies resistant to viral escape and how certain antibodies are also broadly reactive against diverse, related viruses. Using biochemical and structural analysis, deep mutational scanning, and binding experiments, they identified one antibody with unparalleled universal potency.

“This antibody, which binds to a previously unknown site on the coronavirus spike protein, appears to neutralize all known sarbecoviruses – the genus of coronaviruses that cause respiratory infections in mammals,” said Nix, who is an affiliate in Berkeley Lab’s Biosciences Area. “And, due to the unique binding site on mutation-resistant part of the virus, it may well be more difficult for a new strain to escape.”

Subsequent tests in hamsters suggest that this antibody could even prevent a COVID-19 infection if given prophylactically. The new work was published in Nature.

Reference: “SARS-CoV-2 RBD antibodies that maximize breadth and resistance to escape” by Tyler N. Starr, Nadine Czudnochowski, Zhuoming Liu, Fabrizia Zatta, Young-Jun Park, Amin Addetia, Dora Pinto, Martina Beltramello, Patrick Hernandez, Allison J. Greaney, Roberta Marzi, William G. Glass, Ivy Zhang, Adam S. Dingens, John E. Bowen, M. Alejandra Tortorici, Alexandra C. Walls, Jason A. Wojcechowskyj, Anna De Marco, Laura E. Rosen, Jiayi Zhou, Martin Montiel-Ruiz, Hannah Kaiser, Josh Dillen, Heather Tucker, Jessica Bassi, Chiara Silacci-Fregni, Michael P. Housley, Julia di Iulio, Gloria Lombardo, Maria Agostini, Nicole Sprugasci, Katja Culap, Stefano Jaconi, Marcel Meury, Exequiel Dellota, Rana Abdelnabi, Shi-Yan Caroline Foo, Elisabetta Cameroni, Spencer Stumpf, Tristan I. Croll, Jay C. Nix, Colin Havenar-Daughton, Luca Piccoli, Fabio Benigni, Johan Neyts, Amalio Telenti, Florian A. Lempp, Matteo S. Pizzuto, John D. Chodera, Christy M. Hebner, Herbert W. Virgin, Sean P. J. Whelan, David Veesler, Davide Corti, Jesse D. Bloom and Gyorgy Snell, 14 July 2021, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03807-6

The Advanced Light Source and SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource are Department of Energy Office of Science User Facilities.

65 Comments on "“Inescapable” COVID-19 Antibody Discovery – Neutralizes All Known SARS-CoV-2 Strains"

  1. Peter M Foster | August 26, 2021 at 7:12 am | Reply

    What’s the compression ratio necessary to create a bond between magnetically aligned, or maligned, matter of atoms nuclear anatomy. The magnetic moment between which atoms form a nuclear architecture. Keep up the good work, Jay.

  2. So… how long will it be before BIG TECH blocks this article because it doesn’t align with the approved narrative?

    • Please focus on the importance of this instead of your paranoid narrative. You are helping no one and only making yourself feel relevant.

      • JustthefactsMam | August 27, 2021 at 3:39 pm | Reply

        Look, Pumpkin… try to focus and stop pretending to be so offended. Big Pharma, whom you worship, is a juggernaut of money-grubbing, well-connected insiders based in Washington. They don’t care about any of us. Only their bottom line and the trail of dead and permanently ruined don’t matter. The time between ‘conspiracy theory’ and ‘fact’ is currently 12 days.

      • He’s right though. Malign him all you want, but they ARE actively suppressing information in favor of their approved narrative – which has changed with the wind over the last year + . Since 99% of people don’t actually understand the science, watching social media platforms actively, and in many cases demonstrably incorrectly censor information – it’s easy for people to lose trust.

        It’s not paranoid if it’s real.

    • How long before you grow some brain cells that aren’t infected with the Conspiracy Theory Virus?

      • How long before you grow some brains and realize the use of ivermectin and HCQ are being disallowed in the US over more expensive nearly mandatory vaccines?

  3. Studies are nice. Results are all that matters. And the picture this year is worse than last year, even in highly vaccinated states with low populations, like Vermont.

    They lost more people today than they did all of August in 2020. Their August 26, 2020 average was 7 cases a day. It reports123 cases today. Cases have increased 17 times. Their deaths went from 1 in August 2020 to 8 in August of this year. Deaths have increased 8 times. Vermont had no real outbreak in August of 2020. 68% of the population has been fully vaccinated. With a population of about 700,000, Vermont is a curiosity here. If you deduct the children under 12 not eligible for vaccination, the number of people who’ve been infected, and the number of people vaccinated: You have virtually no one left to vaccinate. And the state is experiencing an outbreak 8 times as bad as last August. Why?

    So all these studies telling us that cures are out there and vaccines are amazing are really nice. Until you realize that 100,000 people are in the hospital right now with COVD-19, and that’s more than last August. And virtually every country that’s now heavily vaccinated is experiencing an outbreak worse than last year. If the vaccines aren’t working against Delta, they’re not working.

    50% of a population being vaccinated should have resulted in some improvement year over year. Half of the population supposedly can’t get COVID-19 right now. And yet even heavily vaccinated populations – and in some states, ESPECIALLY heavily vaccinated populations – are getting COVID.

    One theory: Masks. The moment the vaccinated took their masks off in May, COVID-19 attacked. How many of these studies on vaccines are on people who aren’t also wearing a mask?

    • When the tests for “cases” are 90% wrong, the rest of your data is useless.

      • Hi Bruce,
        It is a breath of fresh air to find someone who uses common sense among all the nonsense that is expounded by many of the posters, most of whom are uninformed.

      • I would be quite interested in studying your proven and peer reviewed documentation that 90% are wrong.

  4. @Joe

    “Half of the population supposedly can’t get COVID-19 right now.”

    Literally no one is saying that. It has been confirmed that the vaccine’s efficacy against Delta is largely reduced, but still in the roughly 50% range. It has also been proven to significantly reduce symptoms and improve outcomes. Sure, because the virus has now spread globally it is infecting more people… but the percentage of those people with negative or fatal outcomes has actually dropped.

  5. So, we’ve had a cure/superbly effective treatment for covid since 2003, including the newer COVID-19 strands, and yet we’re still doing experimental vaccines less than a year old instead? Wut?

    • Actually, it said that the blood was from someone “infected” in 2003. It seems that his blood was not analyzed until recently (last year) along with the blood of other survivors.
      But the article isn’t clear on WHEN they discovered the S309 antibody. I would like more clarification before I condemn them for not using a known treatment.

    • You have a problem with Trump’s experimental vaccines but no problem with these experimental antibody therapies like sotrovimab?

      At least be consistent in your foolishness

      • Hi Longjohn119,
        “At least be consistent in your foolishness”
        Well said and with all credibility lost in the medical field, who in their right mine would still truth anything coming from their hands?

  6. Howard Jeffrey Bender, Ph.D. | August 26, 2021 at 11:56 am | Reply

    Parts of this article certainly sound exciting, while other parts are a bit confusing. The “unique binding site on mutation-resistant part of the virus” is still on the outside protein coat with the spikes. The most mutation-prone part of a virus is its protein shell, so why is this part of it resistant? And don’t forget that SARS and SARS-2 are very different viruses.

    All the coronaviruses and all their variants have different protein spikes, with Delta having one that’s more efficient at getting around the vaccines. But the real problem is in the virus itself, not its protein shell, and why the most dangerous, MERS, SARS, and Covid-19, are so infectious. My independent research has found multiple one-in-a-million nucleotide sequence matches between all the coronaviruses and the human genome. Those sequences are the same as some of the loops of human tRNA. Using those loops and their amino acid code matches, viruses may be able to fool the nucleus membrane in cells to allow the virus to enter and associate with the human DNA, creating more opportunities for further infection. Our immune system may be compromised and may no longer be able to stop the virus and other diseases from attacking organs throughout the body. Vaccines that attack the virus protein shells while ignoring their contents are doomed to failure from the Darwin effect, but recognizing these loops suggests a possible approach to successful coronavirus vaccines. Only the infection process is considered in my work, not the innate virulence of the virus. For more info, check out this YouTube, Coronavirus – Using Your DNA Against You. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dOIzD6ch8s

  7. Is this a sponsored ad? Because it was written by AND about the same lab.

  8. cauterized human | August 26, 2021 at 12:29 pm | Reply

    OK this is fabulous news I’m lining up behind the prophylactic hamsters.

  9. Was that a question? It began with an interrogative but had no question mark.

  10. Conrado L Mancao | August 26, 2021 at 1:35 pm | Reply

    Vaccines are not effective enough to stop this pandemic. We should start looking at making our body inhospitable to this virus. It is known that the virus spike proteins need to be activated by our own enzymes before it can latch on to the ace2. There are drugs or even herbals that are known to inhibit these enzymes( TMPRSS2, furin and cathepsins). We should also make our body free of oxidative stress. The best offense is the best defense.

    • Hi Conrado,
      If you want to make your body inhospitable to the virus, then just raise your body’s pH and avoid stress. The virus can only bond to cells that are toxic (acidic). If you maintain a neutral pH and avoid stress which lowers the pH of the virus’s target cells, then the virus can not harm you.

      • Conrado L Mancao | September 3, 2021 at 1:12 pm | Reply

        Yes, that is true since cathepsins are acid driven but that is only one aspect. Need to suppress TMPRSS2 and Furin ( look up camostat and quercetin). Oxidative stress can be controlled by activating the NRF2 gene.

  11. I’m sorry but did they just say they found a cure for the common cold?

  12. Houston Stackhouse | August 26, 2021 at 2:19 pm | Reply

    Its strange to fathom that hydroxychloroquine is still the preferred treatment for hospitalized COVID patients, although it has been suppressed by the media just because 45 mentioned it in one presser

    • Carmine Marinelli | August 26, 2021 at 3:58 pm | Reply

      yup-nailed it!

    • Not correct, sorry. I work in a large hospital, and we, nor any other hospital, is treating with hydroxychloroquine. It doesn’t work. Please review actual science and not rely on misinformation being handed out by Fox News.

      • Wrong, Hydroxychloroquine does work and works very well. Educate yourself on this med. It works fast has saved a lot of lives.
        You have been watching msm and listening to those who have either a financial interest or an agenda we aren’t supposed to know about. Either way you are sadly mistaken and I suspect you are also quite young. I don’t know how you are affiliated with a hospital but I do know that you are not a Physician or even a licensed Nurse. I am an R.N. I don’t get my information from the networks.

        • Conrado L Mancao | September 3, 2021 at 1:25 pm | Reply

          HYdroxychloroquin suppresses cathepsins so to some degree it is effective but the virus can use TMPRSS2 instead to latch on to ACE2. The antibiotic lomefloxacin supresses Furin was effective for me when I took it when I had covid19 in Dec 2019.

      • JustthefactsMam | August 27, 2021 at 3:36 pm | Reply

        Wrong, Science. It works along with Ivermectin, as Japan is doing and India did successfully. Seems like you are either in the employ of Big Pharma or a troll. Maybe both.

      • You can be as sorry as you like, albeit there is no denying that HCQ is a powerful ionophore and both HCQ and Ivermectin work just fine. Personally I would never use either one, but they most certainly do work and they should be available to those that want them. But unlike HCQ if you choose quercetin as a ionophore you can add high dosages of vitamin D to your protocol and that is a big advantage over HCQ.
        Another poster mentioned Ivermectin. FYI, India has filed a “mass murder charge” against the head of the WHO for their loss of live due to the non utility of Ivermectin.

  13. The answer is “three”.

  14. Peter, doesn’t a question typically end with a question mark? I could be wrong.

  15. Galaxy Hitchhiker | August 26, 2021 at 4:59 pm | Reply

    The answer is 72.

  16. Sounds expensive…. Ivermectin is cheap and works really well.

    • Yes but since Ivermectin is off patent & no big pharma would make any money from selling it, it is vilified by big pharma’s partner in crime, the FDA. Don’t be surprised if these posts are deleted simply for using the word Ivermectin.

    • Yes but since it is off patent & no big pharma would make any money from selling it, it is vilified by big pharma’s partner in crime, the FDA. Don’t be surprised if your post is deleted simply for using the word.

  17. It’s obvious the vaccine makers COULD target the same part of the virus that doesn’t mutate much, if at all, but that would mean their next vaccine would be the LAST vaccine ever needed for Covid and the money coming in would stop. That’s BAD for profits.

    Instead of thinking, hey, we could use mRNA to solve a lot more problems/issues, I’m betting all they can think is they hope it keeps mutating and they only target the new protein strand so they can sell Covid vaccines yearly like the Flu and make billions and billions more profit. This kind of discovery will be BURIED just like a cure for the common cold would be. There’s just too much money involved now.

  18. Global death rate for anyone under 50 is approximately zero.

    Average age of COVID-19 death in UK is 86, average life expectancy, 85. (UK has earliest and best dataset.)

    Old people are getting older every day; boomers and population shoulders, look it up. This is global boomer vampirism.

    This won’t end until we put the current leaders into retirement homes (where they should be) and let Cuomo set the health policy.

    They want fresh blood, but we need it.

  19. I came down with Covid back in December 2020. started with a mild fever one night (98.6) then sneezing. then pain in my nose/mouth/teeth. back pain. some headache. then of course some loss of taste and smell, which what brought it back was apple cider vinegar. I recommend that it works. im a very active person. workout 3 times per week. eat a healthy diet. get my flu shot every year/my physical…that’s all I went through with covid. never had an issue with breathing, no cough, no high fever, nothing like that.

    got vaccinated this year as well. I am perfectly fine.

    eat right, sleep right, workout, and you should be fine. too many people don’t do any of that. we could seriously reduce the amount of people that die or get severely sick from covid if they would simply do those things. and not just covid but many illnesses and diseases in general.

    • FYI, one item unique with Covid is that it doesn’t cause sneezing. Also, a healthy body doesn’t get viral infections.

  20. More big pharma horsesh*te for the st*pid masses……We don’t need more of their poison garbage.

    • Calling out morons | August 27, 2021 at 6:38 am | Reply

      Moron

      • Utopia Enslaves | August 27, 2021 at 1:07 pm | Reply

        Amen! As soon as they started saying Covid ‘vaccine’ when anyone with any type of science knowledge or degree knows this injection is licensed as a ‘medical device’, not a ‘vaccine’. “Scientism” . . . What you gonna do? I mean, who needs stupid things like, ‘observation’, consensus on verifiable results by a large community, data aggregated over time and interpreted without bias, re-verification of data through further experimentation as methods and computation improves? Nope! I just have to ‘feel’ this is the right thing! I just have to “feel” the earth can only sustain so many billions, then, “Let the injections begin!” Who needs gas chambers when your population carries a ‘sufficient’ amount of injected Graphene Oxide hydro-gel that can be electrically charged by your phone, and the wonders of 5G, to kill you? “Scientism” or a “Blind And Hate-Filled Desire for Ultimate Power and Earthly Dominion” (peppered profusely with “1984” ‘Newspeak’) . . . What you gonna do? Rise Up! Or consign yourselves to ‘puppet’ strings and no hope of ever becoming ‘a real boy’.
        https://www.modernatx.com/mrna-technology/mrna-platform-enabling-drug-discovery-development

  21. these scientists are amazing. I am assuming all of this is true. And with my deteriorating faith in the media and it’s reporting (spinning?), I am afraid that a month from now, some trusted authority like Fauci will come and call all of this bullsh*t. But I have faith. And after the great work done on the vaccines, I am trusting this will be as (or nearly as) successful.

  22. Covid-19 ‘cases’, lies and censorship are being used as a reason to inject people with an experimental genetic modification ‘vaccine’. At best, it shows a completely incompetent, negligent and cruel over-reaction by governments, health authorities and so-called doctors to an influenza outbreak. At worst it reveals a global conspiracy by sick authoritarians to use a flu epidemic to impose Marxist tyranny, destroy society, kill people and implement UNAgenda2030. It is apparent that there are no leaders with enough integrity and intelligence to put an end to this madness. Europe is reporting 20,595 DEAD 1.9 Million Injured (50% SERIOUS) due to the injections. (Reported in EU Database of Adverse Drug Reactions for COVID-19 Shots)

  23. These guys will be banned and censored all over the internet in 3, 2, 1

    You can’t go against the hysterical agenda of SloeJoe and Big Pharma and “The Jab” when it comes to dealing with the FauciFlu.

  24. Neutralizes all known strains? Yeah, great, what ELSE does it neutralize? If Ivermectin’s good enough for a billion of India’s people, it’s good enough for me.

  25. I’d like to know what happened to MITs DRACO vaccine. It cured and prevented ebola, the cold, and many others in tests. Theoretically eliminating all viral infections. It had incredible test results. Then a few years ago it was removed from their site and no longer exists on the net.

  26. I would like to know if there is a change in statistics of people that live near the cave of the bats. Do they have a natural immunity and if so can it be copied and given to others. What’s in the bat that protects it. And has anyone studied Martins carrying it the migratory bird that comes to thestatesfrom south America same area as bats, and it mutates like millions of times a day probably. Zillions bit only some are working mutations that’s what I think.not sure. Google nanobugged

  27. Judging from the Conspiracy Theory Nutcases in this forum this site should change it’s name to Sci Fi Tech Daily

  28. Utopia Enslaves | August 27, 2021 at 12:48 pm | Reply

    You lost me at: “Lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines are allowing us to feel optimistic again . . .” LOL!!!

  29. She said, he said, conspiracies and agenda driven lies from the talking heads ,so called experts, I do not get a rats patoot about any of this type drivel and no I do not trust any half baked politician with my health. Me personally I want to see an effective means of beating covid’s ass!! So far the hydroxychloroquine sounds like a winner but people with an agenda are throwing shade on it

  30. Nancy Noone Broussard | August 27, 2021 at 7:17 pm | Reply

    It does sound a bit like they found a cure for the common cold. I’ve had fewer colds since I take a flu shot every year – there could be something to this.

  31. Good work keep at it … I haven’t been able to put my finger on it but I can almost garuntee you that’s where the answer to all is SARS covid two. I can’t explain but you are headed in the right direction.

  32. There is HCQ and there is Ivermectin. Both cheap, safe and reliable.

    We don’t need new stuff, made by Big Pharma.

    The more as we learned we can’t trust them.

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