Thread by @antonioregalado

A "secret group" of scientists and their recommendations for a Manhattan Project against covid-19 (incl @SchreiberStuart and @davidrliu )

they "identified monoclonal antibody drugs that latch onto virus cells as most promising treatment. " (thread)

wsj.com/articles/the-s…

The WSJ story isn't clear about why this group is secret or if anyone is heeding them, or why their 17 page report is confidential.

But I kinda agree with them about the antibody drugs! Here's a feature we did a couple of weeks ago:
technologyreview.com/2020/04/10/998…

Our feature story on the antibody drugs is paywalled as nonessential content and wasnt widely read so I will tweet a couple of passages.

First, why might somone think that antibody drugs for covid-19 are a good bet.

Basically, antibodies drugs probably the fastest way to get a rational, purpose-designed, covid19 drug into play

as opposed to off the shelf drugs, clorox injections, etc.

what does an antibody drug do? Antibodies grab the virus and neutralize it.

Where to find covid-19 antibodies? Either in the blood of covid19 survivors or in animals exposed to the virus.

Then what? Copy the antibody and manufacture enough for everyone.

to identify your antibody, you have to locate a B cell making a powerful, then copy out the DNA for the antibody.

Some extremely cool microfluidic gadgets being used to study cells one by one, but thousands at a time. Here is the gizmo from Berkeley Lights

I would say anticovid antibody drug discovery and manufacture coalesce some of the most important and revolutionary developments in the pharmaceutical sciences over the last decades, as well as some real novelties.

Aka BIOTECHNOLOGY

Antibodies are versatile in that they can be given both as a treatment and as form of temporary immunization lasting maybe weeks to people (health care workers at risk) who we want to protect first.

One reason the antibody idea is prized is because antibodies worked like a charm against Ebola.
Espeically if given early, death rate on antibodies was 10% stedda 65%!

Also, Ebola trial carried out in under a year. in a war zone, so that is a timeframe, approach, to emulate now

But there would be a HUGE manufacturing question. Antibodies are made in tanks of living cells. Making enough antibody for everyone would be hard! The capacity to do that doesnt even exist. So that is where the manhattan project stuff comes in, in my mind. As we wrote:

The point I attempted to make in our article, and which the secret group also seems to believe according to the WSJ, is that manufacture of anti-covid antibodies may be the best short/medium term bet on drugs custom made for this virus. /END

PS-- the first tweet in this thread quotes the WSJ's reference to "virus cells". of course viruses are not cells. They are more like particles with genetic info inside.

PPS --- The full report from the secret (not really though) group is here.

s.wsj.net/public/resourc…

logical, all-in-one place summary of covid countermeasures
--find some drugs
--everyone wear masks
--lots of testing! (suggest people spit in barcoded tubes multiple X per week)