Researchers from the EU H2020 Orchestra project have discovered that treatment with various monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) comes with a serious trade-off: SARSCoV2 mutates in response to the immune-pressure created under mAb-treatment along with host immune responses. The viral variant analysis was performed at the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, University of Antwerp, led by Prof. Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar.
The authors of the paper further developed an index that can predict patients at high risk of developing these escape mutations with >96% accuracy.
“The study provides innovative data to select high risk patients for early treatment. We believe this will reduce not only COVID19 mortality but also Long COVID”, says Prof. Evelina Tacconelli, ORCHESTRA coordinator.
This very relevant article has been published by The Journal of Clinical Investigation: JCI – Host immunological responses facilitate development of SARS-CoV-2 mutations in patients receiving monoclonal antibody treatments
