Striking antibody evasion manifested by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2
… a threat to the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapies
… markedly resistant to neutralization by serum not only from convalescent patients
… also from individuals vaccinated with one of the four widely used COVID-19 vaccines
… vaccinated and boosted with mRNA-based vaccines exhibited substantially diminished neutralizing activity against Omicron
… the activity of 18 of the 19 antibodies tested were either abolished or impaired, including ones currently authorized or approved for use in patients
… we also identified four new spike mutations … that confer greater antibody resistance to Omicron
… higher rates of reinfection11 and vaccine breakthroughs
… The scientific community has chased after SARS-CoV-2 variants for a year
… As more and more of them appeared, our interventions directed to the spike became increasingly ineffective
… SARS-CoV-2 is now only a mutation or two away from being pan-resistant to current antibodies, either monoclonal or polyclonal
… We must devise strategies that … develop agents that target better conserved viral elements
