Probe that detects COVID-19 was successfully made

Development research of antibody, plasma therapeutic agent began in earnest

While global attention is focused on the development of 'COVID-19' therapeutics, government-level development research is also in full swing.

 

The government has succeeded in producing specific proteins to detect these infectious antibodies.

 

The National Institute of Health (President Jun-Wook Kwon) in the KCDC (Director Eun-Kyung Jung) announced on the 10th that it has succeeded in producing a protein for detecting COVID-19 antibodies, which is essential for developing antibody treatments for COVID-19 response research.

 

This protein, called Probe, can detect and isolate COVID-19 antibodies.

 

According to the researcher, the production of antibody-detecting protein enables specific detection of neutralizing antibody-producing cells (B cells) in the blood of recovering patients, enabling the production of COVID-19 antibodies.

 

The National Institute of Health has established the immunofluorescence (IFA) method by collecting the blood of patients who have been cured in the meantime, and plans to purify various COVID-19 antigen proteins and establish a neutralization test to evaluate the efficacy of therapeutic agents.

 

Currently, the National Institute of Health has conspired two times on 12 urgent issues for the treatment, vaccine, and diagnostic and clinical research of COVID- 19, and is promoting the development through cooperation research with academia and companies by laying the foundation for the development of therapeutic antibodies, discovery of vaccine candidates, clinical epidemiology and serological studies, expansion of drug use range, and rapid diagnosis.

 

In addition, by securing this supplementary budget, the institute will develop animal models for vaccine research and treatment, and make efforts to develop blood system materials using plasma of recovery patients.

 

Sung-soon Kim, director of Center for Infectious Diseases Research, said that research on the development of antibody therapeutics through the urgent issue and the development of blood system drugs through the supplementary budget will promote cooperation with external companies, academia, and the medical community to advance the development of COVID-19 treatments that can be clinically applied.