Twist Bioscience Corporation (Nasdaq: TWST) today announced preclinical data for three of its proprietary antibodies against the S1 protein in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The data show that TB202-3 and TB202-63, both single domain VHH “nanobodies,” protect against weight loss, a key indicator of disease severity, at the lowest dose of 1 mg/kg in a preclinical hamster challenge model. In addition, TB181-36, an IgG antibody discovered through Twist’s collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), was found to protect against weight loss at 5 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg.
“We are highly encouraged that the antibodies we discovered using our proprietary platform demonstrated equivalent protection against weight loss when compared to convalescent plasma in preclinical studies,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “In addition to applicability in traditional development pathways for therapeutics and diagnostics, the small size, selectivity and active neutralization of our single domain VHH antibodies could potentially enable new approaches to treatment, prevention and diagnosis of COVID-19. We believe one such opportunity would be a preventive daily nasal spray that would block aerosolized particles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering the nasal passage and therefore the body.”
Preclinical studies of TB202-63, TB202-3 and TB181-36 were conducted at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Immunosuppressed animals were given 1, 5 or 10 mg/kg of each of the Twist antibodies, and were assessed for weight loss. Animals treated with all doses of TB202-63 and TB202-3 were protected against weight loss, whereas control animals lost a mean of 11.7% of their body weight. Animals treated with the higher two doses of TB181-36 were protected against weight loss.
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