Jonathan Li Profile picture
Jan 29, 2022 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
There's a lineage of Omicron that's gained the R346K mutation (BA.1.1). This one could spell some trouble for the AZ mAb (tixagevimab/cilgavimab, Evusheld) that's being used for pre-exposure prophylaxis. If you want to learn about tix/cil vs Omicron, read on 1/7
Tix/cil (Evusheld) are 2 mAbs that bind non-overlapping RBD epitopes + have Fc changes to make them long-lasting. In the ph3 PROVENT trial, tix/cil given to high-risk uninfected pts resulted in a 77% reduction in symptomatic COVID-19 infxn. It's FDA-authorized for PrEP 2/7
Based on the NIH OpenData portal of aggregate in vitro data against Omicron, tix/cil has 10-100-fold decreased activity (greater loss of activity for tix than cil), but sotrovimab only has a 2-4-fold loss of activity. So how are both considered likely still active vs Omicron? 3/7
It turns out that tix/cil is at baseline far more potent than sotrovimab as nicely outlined by neut curves in this paper (nature.com/articles/s4158…). Even with the bigger loss of activity of tix/cil vs Omicron, the IC50s end up at a similar point compared to sot (red lines) 4/7
Based on the neut curves above and the PK data (biorxiv.org/content/10.110…), tix/cil should be maintained above the IC90s for at least 6 months vs Omicron, which is reassuring. 5/7
However, position 346 is a site of resistance for cilgavimab and R346K will further decrease its activity based on in vitro data (nature.com/articles/s4158…, COV2-2130 = cil in figure below) 6/7
In summary, Evusheld should retain activity vs Omicron despite 10-100-fold decreased activity. But the BA.1.1 version (+R346K) is expected to further decr cilgavimab activity and we should keep a close eye on this variant and monitor for breakthrough infections on Evusheld 7/7

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More from @DrJLi

Jan 25
Have you been perplexed about why some immunocompromised (IC) patients recover from COVID-19 quickly while others can be infected for months? We uncovered some clues in a paper just published in @ScienceTM. Read on to see what we found: 1/ science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Through our POSITIVES study with co-PIs Mark Siedner, Amy Barczak, Jake Lemieux, we enrolled 56 IC pts and 184 non-IC pts with intensive longitudinal sampling. IC pts were categorized into severe heme onc/transplant (S-HT), severe autoimmune (S-A), and non-severe (NS) groups 2/
The IC pts were older and received more antiviral treatment. Both IC and non-IC participants enrolled with a similar duration of symptoms, received a median of 3 vaccinations and were largely infected with the Omicron variant 3/ Image
Read 11 tweets
Nov 14, 2023
Viral/symptom rebound after Paxlovid remains controversial with no consensus on whether Paxlovid rebound is real. If so, how common is it is? What are the risk factors and causes? Our POSITIVES study has some answers in a new paper in @AnnalsofIM! A🧵👇 acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M2…
The FDA has stated that "there is not a clear association between Paxlovid treatment and COVID-19 rebound" () despite published cases and wide-spread reports in community. Why the disconnect? What data is the FDA relying upon? 2/fda.gov/media/155052/d…
In 2022, an analysis of the EPIC-HR Paxlovid ph 3 study was performed showing viral rebound in 2.3% of Paxlovid vs 1.7% of placebo arm. Critically, EPIC-HR only measured viral load at 2 timepoints after the end of treatment. 3/ nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
Read 14 tweets
Nov 13, 2023
Do you have a patient with persistent low-level HIV viremia and not sure why? We've got a new paper in @NatureMedicine exploring the reasons behind this phenomenon of non-suppressible viremia (NSV). Read on 👇 to hear about what we found! nature.com/articles/s4159…
It all started when @sigal_md, a clinical colleague at @bwh_id, asked for our help with her patient with several yrs of persistent low-level viremia despite ART switches, intensification, good plasma ART drug levels and no significant drug resistance. 2/ Image
We showed in a CROI 2019 presentation that this person's non-suppressible viremia arose from two large, expanded clusters of HIV-infected cells that were producing large amounts of virus, with no evidence of viral replication over several years. 3/ croiconference.org/abstract/persi…
Read 12 tweets
Oct 14, 2022
Really concerned about the explosive growth of new non-BA.5 Omicron subvariants, especially BQ.1.1. This is especially bad news for our immunosuppressed patients and those who can't take Paxlovid. A quick 🧵 on why and how COVID-19 therapy will be affected 1/
For our immunosuppressed patients, Evusheld is the only prophylaxis drug available to prevent COVID-19. For those who can't take Paxlovid, Bebtelovimab is currently the preferred therapy in the NIH treatment guidelines as remdesivir is hard to dose 2/ covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/anti…
Looking at the BQ.1.1 Spike, you can see the tremendous number of mutations in Omicron compared to prior VOC/VOIs. BQ.1.1 (and XBB in Asia) have new mutations that unfortunately confer resistance to both Evusheld and Bebtelovimab 3/
Read 10 tweets
Jun 29, 2022
Our peer-reviewed paper characterizing 7 cases of post-Paxlovid viral and symptom rebound is out in @CIDJournal with quantitative viral load, viral culture and whole genome sequencing data. 1/n academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar…
All pts were vax'd and boosted. All had symptom resolution and negative home-based rapid Ag testing after Paxlovid treatment. Symptoms recurred in 6/7 at a median of 4d after the end of treatment, associated with home Ag test+, high viral load and culture positivity in 3/7. 2/n Image
In 2 of the participants, culture positivity lasted for 11 days after the end of Paxlovid treatment. Importantly, all rebound cases were mild and there were no hospitalizations and no resistance mutations were detected in the the main protease gene or cleavage sites. 3/n
Read 7 tweets
Feb 12, 2022
BA.2 is a sublineage of Omicron that's replacing the original BA.1 version in the U.S. I'll break down what we know about its effects on current antivirals and the facts behind #bebtelovimab, the newest anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody (mAb) that received FDA EUA. a🧵 1/
Compared to BA.1, BA.2 has quite a few changes to ORF1ab and the NTD region of Spike. Luckily, I don't see any mutations in nsp5 or 12 that would affect Paxlovid, remdesivir, or molnupiravir activity 2/
The other good news pertains to Evusheld (tix/cil). It took a hit vs BA.1/BA.1.1, but based on data from David Ho's group (biorxiv.org/content/10.110…), BA.2 has almost no effect on cilgavimab (CoV2-2130, blue box). This is great news for Evusheld and for our immunosuppressed pts 3/
Read 12 tweets

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