Oxford-based medical researchers have found a new treatment that has managed to reduce death among patients admitted to hospital with severe COVID-19.
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The idea is to inject these artificial antibodies so they bind to the virus in a bid to stop the infection in its tracks.
The therapy uses two artificial antibodies, these are generated in a lab to make very potent antibodies.
These two monoclonal antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab, bind specifically to two different sites on the coronavirus spike protein, neutralising the ability of the virus to infect cells.
Because this treatment uses two types of artificial antibodies, it is hoped it will be able to bypass any resistance the patient builds up against one of them. It is also hoped by using a combination of antibodies, the likelihood of viral variants to escape treatment is diminished.
Between September of last year and 22 May, 9,785 UK patients admitted to hospital with the disease were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus the antibody combination treatment, or usual care alone.
The trial demonstrated that the antibody combination developed by Regeneron reduced the risk of death when given to patients with severe Covid-19, who had not mounted a natural antibody response of their own.
The chances of these patients needing to be put on a ventilator were also reduced, as was the duration of their hospital stay.
Of these, about one third were seronegative, meaning they had no natural antibody response of their own, and half were seropositive, meaning they had already developed natural antibodies against the virus.
For one sixth of those involved in the study, their serostatus was unknown.
Researchers found that among patients who received usual care alone, 28-day mortality was twice as high in those without an antibody response (30 per cent) compared with those who were seropositive (15 pet cent) at the start of the study.
Fifty Covid-19 patients who received single-dose monoclonal antibodies cocktail drug (casirivimab and imdevimab) were relieved of their symptoms within 24 hours of the therapy given at the AIG Hospitals in Hyderabad.
"Preliminary analysis shows that these patients are relieved of their symptoms within 24 hours of the monoclonal therapy and their RT-PCR reports also showed viral clearance within a week," Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) Chairman, Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, told IANS on Tuesday. ■