Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have announced the discovery of an antibody that could effectively fight against all variants of COVID-19, along with other related viruses.
Scientists at UT Austin and several other universities collaborated on a new study focusing on how the antibody, called SC27, functions.
Researchers collected the blood of infected Austinites and analyzed the antibodies they produced. SC27 was isolated from a single patient, but researchers were able to identify the molecular sequence of the antibody. That paves the way for it to be replicated for use in COVID-19 treatments and the research team has filed a patent application for the antibody.
“One goal of this research … is to work toward a universal vaccine that can generate antibodies and create an immune response with broad protection to a rapidly mutating virus,” said Will Voss, one of the project’s leaders and a recent UT Austin PhD graduate, in a statement from the university.
Like other protective antibodies, SC27 works by binding to a part of the COVID-19 virus called the spike protein. The spike protein allows the virus to attach to cells within the human body. It also has mutated between different COVID-19 variants, helping the virus to evade efforts by vaccines and other treatments to protect cells.
Researchers say SC27, however, has the ability to recognize differences in the spike protein from variant to variant - meaning that this newly discovered antibody could pave the way for vaccines or treatments that provide universal protection against all COVID-19 variants.