Inhaled Antibody Drug for COVID-19 Clears Coronavirus in Animals | Virus World | Scoop.it
From www.fiercebiotech.com - October 21, 2020 11:07 AM

An inhaled neutralizing antibody cleared the novel coronavirus from infected hamsters at a far lower dose compared with other experimental monoclonal antibodies. The drug is now being developed by Aridis Pharmaceuticals and could offer a self-administered option for COVID-19 if it succeeds in human testing. Monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19 recently took center stage as Regeneron’s experimental cocktail was used to treat President Donald Trump, who went on to rave about it. But that therapy, as is typical for antibody drugs, needs to be injected into the body. Aridis Pharmaceuticals is working on an inhaled neutralizing antibody for COVID-19 dubbed AR-711, which was discovered using samples from patients who had recovered from COVID-19. The drug successfully cleared signs of SARS-CoV-2 virus from infected hamsters at a far lower dose compared with other experimental monoclonal antibodies, according to results published on preprint site bioRxiv.

 

Encouraged by the preclinical results, Aridis plans to start testing AR-711 in non-hospitalized mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients in the first half of next year. If the drug eventually succeeds in human trials, the company could offer a self-administered option for COVID-19, saving patients the need to travel to healthcare facilities for infusions that could take hours to complete. Encouraged by the preclinical results, Aridis plans to start testing AR-711 in non-hospitalized mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients in the first half of next year. If the drug eventually succeeds in human trials, the company could offer a self-administered option for COVID-19, saving patients the need to travel to healthcare facilities for infusions that could take hours to complete. Most antibodies and vaccines that are being developed by drug companies target the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the novel coronavirus’s spike protein. This small part plays an important role in viral infection, as it docks to the ACE2 receptors on human cells to gain entry.

 

A team of scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute isolated RBD-specific B cells from recovered patients to produce monoclonal antibodies that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. One candidate, 1212C2, emerged with potent inhibition of RBD binding to ACE2.  Recent research has shown hamsters to be a good model for COVID-19-related research. So the researchers injected the antibody into hamsters’ abdomens before challenging the animals with SARS-CoV-2. While control hamsters developed live virus in their nasal cavities and lungs, animals that got 1212C2 before the challenge showed a meaningful viral load reduction after two days, and three of four animals eradicated the virus after four days. The treated hamsters also experienced significantly less lung disease compared with control rodents. The scientists further modified 1212C2 to increase its half-life and used a proprietary technology to stabilize it to allow for delivery with a nebulizer. In hamsters, the inhaled version cleared COVID-19 in the lungs of all animals after four days, while all control hamsters had detectable virus in their lungs at that time point. Lung lesions were also significantly decreased in 1212C2-treated hamsters compared with those in the control group...

 

Preprint available in bioRxiv (Oct. 14, 2020):

https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.14.339150