Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) developed a monoclonal antibody “cocktail” that is effective against all coronavirus variants.
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, stated that this cocktail can prevent all known strains, or variants, of the virus from proliferating.
For the study, the researchers determined the ability of monoclonal antibodies as well as antibodies isolated from the "convalescent plasma" of previously infected people.
This was done to neutralize highly transmissible variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These include new strains in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil and others.
"This study highlights the importance of rationally designed antibody cocktails like those we developed," said James Crowe, Jr, MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (VVC).
"We chose two antibodies to create a mixture that specifically would resist escape by SARS-CoV-2. Fortunately, this work and several other papers recently published show that the protection mediated by the antibodies we discovered that are now in six different phase 3 clinical trials should extend to all current variants of concern," he explained.