The COVID-19 virus mutated to outsmart key antibody treatments. Better ones are coming
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged and other effective drugs were elusive, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) emerged as a lifesaving treatment. But now, 3 years later, all the approvals for COVID-19–fighting antibodies have been rescinded in the United States, as mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have left the drugs—which target parts of the original virus—ineffective. Researchers around the globe are now trying to revive antibody treatments by redesigning them to take aim at targets that are less prone to mutation. “There are new approaches that present a much more challenging task for the virus to evade,” says Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at Rockefeller University. Just this week, for example, researchers in Canada reported that they’ve created antibodylike compounds able to grab dozens of sites on viral proteins at the same time, acting as a sort of molecular Velcro...