The BQ1.1 variant is gradually invading France, but it is resistant to all available therapeutic antibodies! Scientists are concerned about the care of people at risk or immunocompromised.
The BQ1.1 subvariant, of the lineage OmicronOmicron, is growing in Europe and the United States. In France, it represents 32% of tests for screeningscreening positive according to the latest flash investigation of Public Health France, a constantly growing figure. As for each of the variants, the scientists are testing the capacity of the arsenal of therapeutic antibodies available to neutralize them. These biomedicines are used in addition to vaccination, especially in immunocompromised people who do not form an immune reaction. solidsolid after vaccination. They do not use the variant itself but virus-like particles which carry the S protein of said variant and the experiments are carried out in the laboratory on cells in culture.
BQ1.1, the resistant
Infectiologists from the Göttingen Primatology Research Institute and the University of the same city in Germany tested the neutralizing power of all therapeutic antibodies, alone or in cocktails, approved by the health authorities. None manages to neutralize BQ1.1 despite the high concentrations tested by scientists.
” With patients at risk in mind, we are very concerned about the resistanceresistance to all approved therapeutic antibodies of the Omicron BQ1.1 subvariant. Particularly for areas where BQ1.1 is spreading, physicians should not rely on biotherapies alone to treat infected at-risk patients, but should consider administering other drugs such as Paxlovid or molnupiravir “, alert Markus Hoffmanresearcher at the University of Göttingen and first author of this correspondence published in The Lancet Infectious Disease.
BQ1.1 is also resistant to a therapeutic antibody still being tested and expected to arrive very soon. The design of new treatments for Covid-19Covid-19 is a real race against time against theemergenceemergence new variants.