BA.2.75.2 exhibits more extreme antibody escape than any variant we've seen so far. A short 🧵
As with our previous work, this effort was led by @DannySheward, with @PeacockFlu helping us accelerate things.
@EricTopol made a gutsy call a while back, saying that BA.2.75 was "a scariant".
This may turn out to be correct, but BA.2.75's daughter, BA.2.75.2, with just three additional mutations, is genuinely scary.
In 18 random blood donor samples in Stockholm, sampled just a couple of weeks ago, BA.2.75.2 was neutralised, on average, five-fold less potently than BA.5. These are recent samples in a city that has good vaccine coverage and likely relatively high prior infection rates.
As an important caveat, we don't know the individual histories of these samples.
We also looked at BA.4.6 and BA.2.10.4, but neither show nearly as much evasion of neutralisation by serum antibodies as BA.2.75.2.
In terms of clinical monoclonal antibodies, Evusheld is completely gone for BA.2.75.2. Sotrovimab looks similar between BA.2.75.2 and BA.5 (that is: not great, but not completely knocked out - clinical utility unclear?). Bebtelovimab's potency survives, alone.
A short preprint has been uploaded to BioRxiv, which we'll be updating with more data soon. Thanks to all the collaborators involved, and a special thanks to all the clinicians and researchers who work so hard to sequence these emerging variants. We'd be blind without you.
We recently discovered that a “public” class of antibodies (one that most people should be able to make) can mature to cross-neutralize Omicron, and all other SARS-CoV-2 variants we tested: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
After we raced to establish an assay to measure antibody neutralization of Omicron, showing that, in many people, the loss wasn’t as extreme as was expected
Another Omicron neutralization thread, this time about monoclonal antibodies. Once again, massive cred to @DannySheward, and everyone else from the previous data release. This time, we also need to especially thank @ReddyLab_ETHZ (1/n)
It turns out that panels of relevant monoclonal antibodies are non-trivial to find in a hurry, and @roy_ehling and @saireddy911were happy to provide these ASAP. Before results, some caveats: (2/n)
First: these antibodies are not the versions produced by the companies or labs that developed them - they are made in-house at @ReddyLab_ETHZ. The important bits should be the same, but the production process differs, and it is not impossible that this matters. (3/n)
Omicron antibody neutralization thread, with preliminary results, and substantial caveats. Most credit to @DannySheward. We’ve been racing to generate neutralization data as fast as possible, and our first results were read this afternoon (1/n).
Major NB: this is preliminary data. Given the circumstances, however, we feel it critical to release data right away, and explain current caveats that we can later iron out and investigate. Link here: tinyurl.com/ycx4x4d4 (2/n).
Summary: In our hands, from a first set of results, the loss of neutralization against Omicron (relative to the pandemic founder) is exceptionally variable, with some samples showing almost no loss, and some showing ±25-fold loss relative to the pandemic founder variant (3/n).