Human monoclonal antibodies can be a substitute for traditional antibiotics

In the course of a new and innovative study, led by Dr. Natalia Freund and doctoral candidate Avia Waston at the Sackler Medical Faculty, the research group successfully isolated monoclonal antibodies, which inhibited the growth of germs. wear in laboratory mice. The antibodies were separated from a patient who had contracted active tuberculosis but had since recovered.

This is, in fact, the first time in history that researchers have developed a “biological antibiotic” and demonstrated that human monoclonal antibodies can be a substitute for the traditional chemical antibiotics and protect mice from pathogenic bacterial challenge. The study was conducted in collaboration with two additional laboratories from the USA and China and was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communication.

For the last century, antibiotics have been the mainstay of anti-bacterial treatment, both effective and inexpensive. Antibiotics are chemical agents, designed to block and destroy certain cells, such as microbial cells. However, because some biological devices are common both in human cells and microphones, the range of antibiotics that can be used safely without harming the patient is limited.

For example, cell wall parts of many types of microbes are common to human cells; therefore, any damage done to microphone cell walls can cause severe damage to bodily systems. Moreover, in the last few years the number of antibiotic-resistant microbial strains is increasing, which presents new challenges in terms of how you can protect the body from microbes. in the post-antibiotic period.

For these reasons, Dr. Natalia Freund and her laboratory team have spent years searching for a biological agent for known antibiotics. Antibodies are proteins that are naturally produced by our immune response after infection or vaccination. They reap many benefits such as distinctiveness, durability and safety. For these reasons, today, antibodies are widely used in the clinic for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and viral infections such as COVID-19.

The research team chose tuberculosis, which is caused by tuberculosis infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as a test model, and was successful, for the first time ever, in designing an effective treatment based on anti-antibodies. -bacterial that developed naturally during infection. Another reason for choosing tuberculosis is that, although the vaccine against tuberculosis was already developed 100 years ago, and is based on the strain bacillus bovis (BCG), it is not. effective in adults and does not prevent infection.

Moreover, in recent years, more and more types of disease have developed which are contrary to the only currently available treatment, that is, treatment with antibiotics. Because the germs of tuberculosis are highly contagious, moved in the air and damage the lungs, the spread of protective strains of tuberculosis that modern medicine cannot pose a real threat. Currently, around a quarter of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis, with drug-resistant rays reaching as high as 40% in some countries. In Israel, about 200 active cases of tuberculosis occur each year.

According to Dr. Natalia Freund, “Antibiotics are extremely effective and cost-effective, so for the last few years we have been our sole weapon against bacterial infections. Unfortunately, antibiotics are become smaller and more effective, and in the main cases of anti-drug doctors, they are empty-handed in finding appropriate treatment for their patients, so new ways of killing bacteria are needed Advances in biological medicine have allowed us to adapt the bacteria in new ways that are not based solely on antibiotics, thus allowing a solution to the challenge. Our study is a groundbreaking study of the concept of employing monoclonal antibodies (derived from single cells) as an effective remedy in combating bacterial pathogens, “he said. r emphasis on Dr. Freund.

It should be noted that, due to the size and complexity of the bacillus tuberculosis, the isolation of monoclonal antibodies has been particularly challenging. But now, the researchers in Dr. Freund’s laboratory have successfully identified phosphate pump proteins on the cell wall of bacillus, which provide energy to the bacterium and are highly specific and preserved. for all types of consumption.

The two types of antibodies separated by the researchers, which inhibit the action of the pump, inhibit bacterial growth and reduce bacterial levels by 50% in mice compared to mice not treated with antibodies. Furthermore, these antibodies have been found to be active against three different strains of bacillus tuberculosis; and given that the antibodies are directed against the phosphorus pump, which is common to all strains of this bacillus, the vaccine is expected to be effective against many other strains that have not been studied, giving including those opposed to antibiotics.

Currently, despite the success of the study, Dr. Freund’s laboratory is examining the possibility of extending the “biological” substitute for antibiotics to include other diseases. . “The model that has been successful in this study will allow us to expand our future work to include other diseases such as seizures and staphylococcus,” said Dr Freund.