26/12/20 Monoclonal antibodies

Finally got my local Triangle walk in today, despite some very light drizzle. That's made me feel a little less bad about the lack of exercise over the last few days.

I thought it sensible to take a Fybogel and a Laxido last night after the Christmas lunch (as well as the daily Senna). A most satisfactory result this morning...

Some promising news today about the NHS running two clinical trials on monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19. This is similar to, but not the same as, the "Regeneron" treatment used on Donald Trump. This is of particular interest to immune-compromised people, which includes everyone with myeloma. The vaccines we have so far depend on the recipient having an immune system response to provide "active" immunity by making antibodies to match the vaccine - but if you have a seriously weakened immune system that isn't going to happen, or not on a big enough scale. But if you can introduce the right kind of antibodies directly into the bloodstream you have "passive" immunity for as long as those antibodies hang around. The two trials are looking at two different angles on this - the use of passive antibodies as soon as possible after exposure to risk of coronavirus infection, and as an alternative to vaccination in the immune-compromised population. Expectation seems to be that passive antibody injections could give six months to a year of protection, which is in the same territory as vaccination (so far). 

From my personal point of view, my blood numbers show my white cells as being pretty much in the normal ranges, so I hope that my immune system is not (yet) in too bad a way so that there is hope of a good response to vaccination. But it's very comforting to know that there may now be an alternative route towards immunity as well as something getting close to a treatment for COVID-19.

Here's a little something I found about monoclonal antibodies (produced in the lab from clones of a single cell). It explains some of the strange and un-pronounceable names of some of the myeloma drugs that start appearing in second-line treatments and beyond:

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Monoclonal antibodies are man-made proteins that act like human antibodies in the immune system. There are 4 different ways they can be made and are named based on what they are made of.

• Murine: These are made from mouse proteins and the names of the treatments end in -omab.
• Chimeric: These proteins are a combination of part mouse and part human and the names of the treatments end in -ximab.
• Humanized: These are made from small parts of mouse proteins attached to human proteins and the names of the treatments end in -zumab
• Human: These are fully human proteins and the names of the treatments end in -umab.
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• Never knew that before. Live and learn!