Last checked at 
By Nancy Lapid
May 28 (Reuters) - The following is a roundup of some of the
latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts
to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused
by the virus.
India variant shows resistance to antibody drugs, vaccines
Antibody drugs and COVID-19 vaccines are less effective
against a coronavirus variant that was first detected in India,
according to researchers. The variant, known as B.1.617.2, has
mutations that make it more transmissible. It is now predominant
in some parts of India and has spread to many other countries. A
multicenter team of scientists in France studied a B.1.617.2
variant isolated from a traveler returning from India. Compared
to the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in Britain, the India
variant was more resistant to antibody drugs, although three
currently approved drugs still remained effective against it,
they found. Antibodies in blood from unvaccinated COVID-19
survivors and from people who received both doses of the
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were 3-fold to 6-fold less potent
against the India variant than against the UK variant and a
variant first identified in South Africa, according to a report
posted on Thursday on the website bioRxiv ahead of peer review.
The two-dose AstraZeneca vaccine, which does not protect against
the South Africa variant, is likely to be ineffective against
the India variant as well. Antibodies from people who had
received their first dose "barely inhibited" this India variant,
said study co-author Olivier Schwartz of Institut Pasteur. The
study, Schwartz added, shows that the rapid spread of the India
variant is associated with its ability to "escape" the effect of
neutralizing antibodies. (https://bit.ly/3fQLeJ0)
New antibody drug keeps mild COVID-19 from worsening
An antibody drug from Vir Biotechnology and
GlaxoSmithKline that protects against progression of
COVID-19 in high-risk patients with mild to moderate disease
received emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration on Wednesday. In a large randomized trial,
patient risk of progression to more severe illness was reduced
by 85% with the drug, sotrovimab, compared to a placebo,
according to an interim report from the trial posted on Friday
on the medRxiv website in advance of peer review. Everyone in
the trial had risk factors for severe COVID-19 such as heart
disease, diabetes, obesity and old age. Three of 291 patients
(1%) in the sotrovimab group became sick enough to be
hospitalized, versus 21 of 292 (7%) in the placebo group,
researchers said. All five patients who needed to be admitted to
intensive care received placebo, they reported. Serious
complications were less common with sotrovimab than with
placebo, they added. The antibody treatment will be available
for COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks, GSK and Vir said on
Wednesday. (https://bit.ly/3i4udO2; https://reut.rs/3wH9xjq)
Joint and muscle disease drugs may limit vaccine response
The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech
and Moderna may be less effective in
patients taking immunosuppressant drugs for rheumatic and
musculoskeletal diseases, researchers said. "While additional
research is required, patients on immunosuppressants should be
aware that they may not be fully protected against COVID even
after full vaccination. Therefore, patients should talk to their
providers before relaxing precautions," said Dr. Julie Paik of
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. In an
earlier study, her team found that most patients with rheumatic
and musculoskeletal diseases do respond appropriately to the
vaccines. Looking more closely at 20 people whose immune systems
did not respond well - that is, no antibodies were detectable
after vaccination - the researchers found that most were
receiving multiple immunosuppressive agents. "A unifying factor"
among the patients was their use of medications such as
rituximab and mycophenolate mofetil that affect immune cells
called lymphocytes that produce antibodies and help control
immune responses, the researchers reported on Monday in the
journal Annals of Internal Medicine. "Our study highlights the
need for physicians and patients to be aware that
immunosuppressants may prevent an appropriate vaccine response
against SARS-CoV-2," Paik said. (https://bit.ly/3fuX7oV)
Robust, coordinated immune response marks mild COVID-19
In COVID-19 patients who do not become seriously ill, the
immune system reacts to the virus "robustly," with a highly
coordinated response, and this coordination may be one key to
ensuring a mild illness, according to researchers. Detailed
studies of immune system behavior in COVID-19 patients have
focused primarily on those with moderate or severe illness and
have found "uncoordinated" immune responses. The new study,
posted Wednesday on the bioRxiv website ahead of peer review,
"used cutting-edge methods to deeply study immune cells" in 18
patients with only mild illness, said study co-author Greg Szeto
of the Allen Institute for Immunology in Seattle. In these
mildly ill volunteers, the more intense the immune response in
early infection, the higher the levels of antibodies in their
blood after recovery, the multicenter research team found. And
compared to participants who recovered, participants who had
lingering troublesome symptoms - so-called Long Covid - had
weaker immune responses to the virus in early infection, Szeto
added. The differences the study found between mildly ill
patients who did and did not develop Long Covid may help
researchers devise more personalized ways to monitor immune
responses to the virus and better methods for treatment, Szeto's
team concluded. (https://bit.ly/3ushEi5)
Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl in an external browser for a
Reuters graphic on vaccines in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks; Editing by Will
Dunham)
