Neutralizing SARS Virus May Lead to Therapy

Scientists have neutralized the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which they believe may lead to the development of a vaccine and/or therapy.

First, the researchers were able to produce a protein from the SARS virus that results in attachment and entry into cells. If that protein could be blocked, the virus would probably not be able to infect the host. So they introduced the protein in genetically engineered mice that produce fully human antibodies when immunized. After immunization with the protein, the mice responded with human antibodies that bind to the protein. Sera from the mice were then tested against the live SARS virus in tissue culture. The antibodies neutralized the ability of the virus to infect cells in the culture. Details of the research were presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America in San Diego (CA, USA).

"We've got mice producing the right antibody, so we hope it's only a matter of time before we isolate the one cell that will become the basis for a monoclonal antibody to prevent SARS in individuals exposed to the illness,” noted Donna Ambrosino, M.D., director of the Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories (MBL) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (Jamaica Plain, MA, USA). Dr. Ambrosino worked with a team of scientists partnered with Medarex, Inc. (Princeton, NJ, USA) to use the company's UltiMAb technology to generate fully human antibodies with the potential to treat SARS.

The next step is to isolate the individual cell from the mice that produces the neutralizing antibody to the SARS virus. There are many cells that could be producing the right antibody, and researchers at the MBL are now at work isolating cells and testing their efficacy against the SARS virus. The researchers believe that the key cell will be found and cloned and a monoclonal antibody will be produced from that cell.



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