COVID-19: New Screening Tools, and Progress in Antibodies and Vaccines

According to NBC News, the University of Arizona may have stopped a corona outbreak before it started with the help of wastewater-based epidemiology. This novel approach involves analyzing sewage samples for traces of the coronavirus, which gave the university a clue that traces of the virus were popping up in discrete groups of people — those in university dorms — as part of an early warning system.

Researchers in the UK and Israel are also working on urban sewage early detection systems, and UArizona is now tracking sewage from NYC and LA to provide potential early warnings in those areas.

There are also some early returns on the monoclonal antibody trials being conducted by Eli Lilly, as reported in STAT News and Eli Lilly. The test was conducted on 450 patients with mild to moderate COVID-infections, so the sample size was small and results only point to whether there is promise for further study on larger populations.

But the good news is that the results were encouraging. One of the tested dosages significantly reduced levels of the virus in blood taken 11 days later, and overall, the patients who received the monoclonal antibody candidate vs. placebo were 72 percent less likely to need hospitalization or emergency room treatment. This should pave the way for larger and more intense final phase studies.

Also, Bloomberg News and Astrazeneca have reported that trials of its vaccine candidate have resumed after a voluntary pause to determine that one patient’s condition after treatment was not related to vaccination. This particular candidate trains the immune system to attack the corona-virus spike protein (used to latch on to human tissues) by exposure through injection.

The company now plans to enroll 30,000 volunteers to test the vaccine on a broader scale, but so far it has produced promising antibody responses. According to PharmaNews Intelligence, neutralizing antibody responses were detected in 91 percent of early participants after a single dose when measured in microneutralization assay, and in 100 percent of participants when measured plaque reduction neutralization assay.