In other medical news, the WSJ ran a piece today about mABs - monoclonal antibodies. These aren't new and I've seen articles about these that go way back to April. I guess what is news is that various drug companies are closer to having product than they were in April. The article is actually an opinion piece that urges the government to fast track approval for these drugs like the NIH Warp Speed program for for vaccines ..... I agree. These things could be deal makers.
Here's how they work: The drug is designed to latch on to proteins on the bad guy's surface and act as agent that prompts a faster and greater immune response. Natural ABs from the adaptive immune system and other virus fighters from the innate immune system are the goal. mABs are used a lot as adjustment treatment with Chemo to attack specific cancer cells. Some impressive results have occurred.
There's been plenty of research in the past for the use of mABs v. virus'. HIV, Ebola, SARS, MERS, H1N1 are examples with varying degrees of success - they have been successful in containing Swine flu (H1N1), SARS, MERS and Ebola. Not so much with HIV. They should work with SARS-CoV-2 and the author argues there's an over-focus in funding on vaccines at the expense of these promising drugs. He also argues that they are a back stop to a vaccine if it doesn't produce sufficient AB response in trials or as use becomes more wide spread. mABs have been demonstrated to produce lasting protection often better than vaccines and when a vaccine is hard to develop in both time and effectiveness. Vaccines and mABs should be on parallel development tracks with equal funding and fast tracking for both.
Here's how they work: The drug is designed to latch on to proteins on the bad guy's surface and act as agent that prompts a faster and greater immune response. Natural ABs from the adaptive immune system and other virus fighters from the innate immune system are the goal. mABs are used a lot as adjustment treatment with Chemo to attack specific cancer cells. Some impressive results have occurred.
There's been plenty of research in the past for the use of mABs v. virus'. HIV, Ebola, SARS, MERS, H1N1 are examples with varying degrees of success - they have been successful in containing Swine flu (H1N1), SARS, MERS and Ebola. Not so much with HIV. They should work with SARS-CoV-2 and the author argues there's an over-focus in funding on vaccines at the expense of these promising drugs. He also argues that they are a back stop to a vaccine if it doesn't produce sufficient AB response in trials or as use becomes more wide spread. mABs have been demonstrated to produce lasting protection often better than vaccines and when a vaccine is hard to develop in both time and effectiveness. Vaccines and mABs should be on parallel development tracks with equal funding and fast tracking for both.
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