My Revolution of PARTs

WASHINGTON: The current drugs to treat Covid-19 remain very effective against the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a laboratory study. However, available antibody therapies -- typically given intravenously in hospitals -- are substantially less effective against Omicron compared to earlier variants of the virus, the researchers said. The lab tests also showed that some antibodies have entirely lost their ability to neutralise Omicron at realistic dosages, they said. "The bottom line is we have countermeasures to treat Omicron. That's good news," said study lead author Yoshihiro Kawaoka, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the US. "However, this is all in laboratory studies. Whether this translates into humans, we don't know yet," Kawaoka said. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, corroborate other studies that show most available antibody treatments are less effective against Omicron. T...

WASHINGTON: People who are infected after getting vaccinated develop a greatly enhanced immune response to variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, according to a lab study. The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), shows that a breakthrough infection generates a robust immune response against the Delta variant. The findings suggest that the immune response in such people is likely to be highly effective against other variants as the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to mutate. "You can't get a better immune response than this. These vaccines are very effective against severe disease," said study senior author Fikadu Tafesse, an assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in the US. "Our study suggests that individuals who are vaccinated and then exposed to a breakthrough infection have super immunity," Tafesse said. The study found that antibodies measured in blood samples of breakthro...

WASHINGTON: Omicron can evade the immune protection conferred by Covid-19 vaccines and natural infection, according to a peer-reviewed study which also suggests that the new variant of coronavirus is completely resistant to antibody therapies in use today. The study, published in the journal Nature on Thursday, also highlights the need for new vaccines and treatments that anticipate how the SARS-CoV-2 virus may soon evolve. The researchers from Columbia University in the US and the University of Hong Kong noted that a striking feature of Omicron is the alarming number of changes in the variant's spike protein that could pose a threat to the effectiveness of current vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. The study tested the ability of antibodies generated by vaccination to neutralise Omicron in laboratory tests that pitted antibodies against live viruses and against pseudoviruses constructed in the lab to mimic the variant. The researchers found that the antibodies from people do...