- India has reached out to Australia seeking to restock monoclonal antibody doses to combat the Nipah virus and is expecting 20 more doses soon.
Key points
- The monoclonal antibody has passed the phase-one trial and has been administered to 14 persons globally till now.
- Developed in the United States, the antibody was shared with an Australian university as part of a tech-transfer initiative.
- India got some doses of monoclonal antibodies from Australia in 2018. Currently, doses are available for only 10 patients.
About Monoclonal antibodies
- Monoclonal antibodies (MAB) are man-made proteins that act like human antibodies in the immune system.
- It sticks to a specific protein called an antigen. Antibodies are found naturally in our blood and help us to fight infection.
- MAB therapies mimic natural antibodies but are made in a laboratory. Monoclonal means all one type. So each MAB therapy is a lot of copies of one type of antibody.
- Antibodies circulate throughout the body until they find and attach to the antigen. Once attached, they can force other parts of the immune system to destroy the cells containing the antigen.
- Monoclonal antibodies are used to treat many diseases, including some types of cancer. To make a monoclonal antibody, researchers first have to identify the right antigen to attack.
Hendra virus
- The monoclonal antibody is used in Australia for the Hendra virus, which is a bat-borne virus that is associated with a highly fatal infection in horses and humans. Numerous disease outbreaks in Australia among horses have been caused by Hendra Virus. Two doses of the antibody have to be given per person.
