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ACROBiosystems races to kick off lab studies of Omicron

Publication Date:2021-12-07

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One-stop shop for research of new COVID-19 variants: Anti-Omicron neutralizing antibodies & binding antibodies, VOC antigen detection ELISA kit and more

The emergence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529), the fifth Variant of Concern (VOC) the World Health Organization has named, has tightened up the nerves of the world. So far, this rapidly spreading mutant strain has been identified in more than 38 countries and becomes the dominant variants in South Africa. According to current research, Omicron shows a dramatic pattern of more than 30 mutations in the spike protein. Such a high number of mutations are hardly ever seen in previously identified strains. In particular, 15 mutations characterized on the RBD region are highly plausible to change the weapon that virus uses to invade the victim’s cells and help it dodge established immune surveillance, benefiting its survival in the hosts.

At present, all COVID-19 therapeutic neutralizing antibodies were developed against the RBD domain of the wild-type virus, and are highly likely to completely fail or lose a significant proportion of neutralization when confronted by the heavily mutated spike RBD of Omicron. Therefore, it is important and urgent to evaluate the influence of Omicron on the effectiveness of vaccines and antivirals drugs and vaccines. On the other hand, as Omicron’s impact might take weeks to be confirmed via continued lab works, multiple pharmaceutical and vaccine companies have realized the urgent need to develop Omicron-specific products. BioNTech and Pfizer have promised to be able to develop a new version of their vaccine within 100 days if necessary. Moderna also revealed that they will test the efficacy of their high-dose multivalent boosters against Omicron and start to develop a new booster specific to Omicron.

In response to the global emergency, ACROBiosystems immediately launched an emergency response team to develop related research tools, aiming to accelerate the evaluation of this new emerging variant and the development of vaccines, neutralizing antibodies, antiviral drugs and detection reagents. In only 10 days, most of the core reagents for Omicron R&D have been produced.

Anti-Omicron neutralizing Antibodies

In response to the global emergency, ACROBiosystems immediately raced to screen for Omicron-neutralizing antibodies from the reagents library. Successfully, we have selected two antibodies that can potently neutralize the Omicron mutant:

A humanized antibody isolated from the serum of COVID-19 vaccine recipient and recombinantly produced from HEK293 cells (Cat.No.SPD-M265);
A chimeric antibody originally obtained from a mouse immunized with recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Spike S1 protein and expressed from HEK293 cells (Cat.No.S1N-M122).

The research data determined the potential of these two antibodies as a positive control in the development of broad-spectrum neutralizing antibody candidates, multivalent vaccines and diagnostic reagents.

Competitive ELISA shows that these two antibodies can effectively block the binding of Omicron spike trimer protein to human ACE2;
Pseudovirus assay shows that the antibodies also retain broad neutralization against 4 VOC mutants including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta.

ASSAY DATA

Humanized neutralizing antibody (Cat. No. SPD-M265)

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD Broadly Neutralizing Antibody (AM359b) (Cat.No. SPD-M265) can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron) Spike RBD by inhibiting RBD: ACE2 interaction. The ACE2-coated plate was incubated with the SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron) Spike RBD and treated with neutralizing antibody at increasing concentration. The IC50 value is 0.05313ug/mL.

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD Broadly Neutralizing Antibody (AM359b) (Cat.No. SPD-M265) can bind SARS-CoV-2 Spike Trimer (B.1.1.529/Omicron) (Cat.No.SPN-C52Hz) with high affinity (EC50 = 0.0018 ug/ml).

Chimeric neutralizing antibody (Cat. No. S1N-M122)

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD Neutralizing antibody (Cat.No. S1N-M122) neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron) Spike RBD by inhibiting RBD: ACE2 interaction. The ACE2-coated plate was incubated with the SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron) Spike RBD and treated with neutralizing antibody at increasing concentration. Percent inhibition was calculated based on the OD value.

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD Neutralizing antibody (Cat.No. S1N-M122) can strongly bind to Omicron Spike trimer protein (Cat.No.SPN-C52Hz) (EC50 = 0.0026 ug/ml).

Anti-Omicron binding Antibodies

ACROBiosystems has also successfully selected a binding antibody (Cat.No. S1N-M130) that can bind to Omicron RBD with high affinity, which is suitable for ELISA, WB, FACS and other experiments.

ASSAY DATA

In a functional ELISA, immobilized Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD Antibody, Chimeric mAb, Human IgG1 (Cat.No. S1N-M130) at 1 μg/mL (100 μL/well) can bind SARS-CoV-2 Spike Trimer, His Tag (B.1.1.529/Omicron) (Cat.No. SPN-C52Hz) with a linear range of 0.04-0.125 μg/mL.

VOC Antigen Detection Kit

Based on the powerful antibody screening platform, ACROBiosystems has successfully developed an ELISA kit(Cat.No. RAS-A039) that can detect the spike protein of wild type SARS-CoV-2 virus and all five VOCs including Omicron, which can be used for the characterization and quantification of antigen content in the development and production of multivalent vaccines.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein ELISA Kit (For Vaccine Development) (Cat.No.RAS-A039) can accurately quantify Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron spike proteins. The kit’s sensitivity at detecting Omicron spike proteins is 19.5ng/mL.

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