Scientists discover antibodies that can neutralize COVID-19 variants, potentially prevent future coronavirus outbreaks

Scientists have discovered antibodies that can neutralize virtually all known variants of the COVID-19 virus, potentially preventing future coronavirus outbreaks.

Newly discovered antibodies can neutralize virtually all known variants of COVID-19 and may have the potential to prevent future coronavirus outbreaks, according to a new study.

Published in the peer-reviewed Science Advances journal Thursday, the study describes how a team of researchers was able to isolate potent neutralizing antibodies from a recovered SARS patient, who was vaccinated against COVID-19, that “exhibited remarkable breadth” against known sarbecoviruses, or respiratory viruses, like SARS and COVID-19. 

The international team was led by Duke-NUS Medical School and involved scientists from the National University of Singapore, the University of Melbourne in Australia and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the United States.

By isolating antibodies from the COVID-19-vaccinated SARS survivor, the researchers found that the combination of prior coronavirus infection and vaccination generated an “extremely broad and powerful” antibody response — capable of stopping nearly all related coronaviruses tested.

“This work provides encouraging evidence that pan-coronavirus vaccines are possible if they can ‘educate’ the human immune system in the right way,” senior author Wang Linfa, a professor and bat virus expert with Duke-NUS’ Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme, said in a news release.

In total, the team obtained six antibodies that could neutralize multiple coronaviruses, including COVID-19, its variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron, the original SARS virus, along with multiple other animal coronaviruses transmitted from bats and pangolins.

Co-author Chia Wan Ni, a former postdoctoral fellow in Linfa’s lab who now works with Singapore start-up CoV Biotechnology, said three antibodies stood out as “exceptionally broad and potent,” capable of neutralizing all tested SARS-related viruses “at very low concentrations.”