University of Hyderabad (UoH) and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have tied up with Vins Bioproducts Ltd, a well-known antisera manufacturing company to develop antibody fragment-based immunotherapy for immediate treatment for the COVID-19. The Vins Bioproducts Ltd, is incubated at UoH BioNEST incubation centre.
Scientists are exploring alternative strategies of using horses or other higher animals to generate antibodies against the SARS-COV2 viral antigens. The antibodies, raised in horses using inactivated Coronavirus is fractionated and purified to produce antibody fragments F(ab’)2 for neutralising Coronavirus in the patients for recovery.
In a press release on Friday, the UoH said the collaborative effort plans to use the F(ab’)2 platform technology which has been providing neutralising antibodies from horses for a variety of life-threatening pathologies in humans as anti-venoms, anti-toxins and antivirals.
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Horse-based immunoglobulins can be produced in large quantities as a promising alternative therapy, which would be economical and can be made readily available to a larger population, it said, adding that collaborators have complementary expertise required for developing the therapy for treating the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the UoH, the team is quite hopeful about this treatment and feels that this would be more productive, efficient, safe, which can meet the enormous requirement for the treatment of the COVID-19.
The UoH team is headed by Dr. Nooruddin Khan, an Associate Professor at the Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences while the team at CCMB is headed by Dr. Krishnan Harinivas, who is a principal scientist and specializes in the area of molecular virology.
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Vins Bioproducts Ltd CEO Siddharth Daga expressed his confidence in the fast track development by complimenting the technical and infrastructural strengths available in the three collaborating organizations and making available a specific therapeutic antiviral product in the shortest possible time.
UoH Vice-Chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile hoped this would result in the successful development of antibody fragment-based immunotherapy for immediate treatment for the COVID-19 at the earliest.