Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies against antigens of Sars-CoV-2 Spike protein

• Grant number: 22/08107-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Applied Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Cabral de Miranda
• Grantee: Julia Beatriz Menuci Lima
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/14526-0 - Development of vaccines against Streptococcus pyogenes and Chikungunya Virus based on virus like particles, AP.JP

Abstract

At the end of December 2019, the WHO (World Health Organization) was alerted about several cases of pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, China, caused by a new coronavirus that had never been identified in humans. Approximately one month later, on January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak of novel coronavirus infection as a public health emergency and on March 11, 2020, Covid-19 (disease caused by the novel coronavirus) was classified as a pandemic. Currently, the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the world is around 520 million and the number of deaths has exceeded 6 million, with these numbers continuing to increase. In this way, several research groups around the world have been working tirelessly to develop multiple prophylactic and therapeutic strategies against Sars-CoV-2. Given this scenario, there was the development of some vaccines against Covid-19 and we continue with the extreme urgency of developing therapies to treat new cases, aiming to reduce the number of deaths and cases of persistent symptoms. Passive immunotherapy has shown great promise for the treatment of viral infections, including Covid-19. Despite the positive results of several groups, there is still a long way to go for the commercialization of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of this disease, therefore, the development of new preventive and therapeutic strategies remains extremely relevant. Thus, the objective of this work is to produce and characterize monoclonal antibodies against antigens used in the production of vaccines based on VLPs against Sars-CoV-2 and to evaluate the application of these antibodies in laboratory diagnosis and passive immunization, analyzing their capacity for viral neutralization, which, once promising, will lead to the improvement of the molecule for clinical use, such as the development of humanized antibodies.