The approach will address “bottlenecks” that slow the traditional antibody discovery process, and it aims to make it possible to generate monoclonal antibody therapies against any target of interest.

The study findings point to the potential of interleukin-13 antibodies — approved for use in humans — as a treatment to protect against bacterial pneumonia in patients with zinc deficiency.

Crowe and his colleagues have developed cutting-edge technologies to isolate and study antiviral antibodies.

A close cousin of Ebola, the Marburg virus is transmitted by fruit bats and by exposure to body fluids from infected individuals. There currently are no approved treatments or vaccines for MVD, which has a roughly 50% fatality rate.

VUMC’s antibody collaboration with the DOD goes back to 2018, when the medical center signed a five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop protective treatments that can be rushed to health care providers within weeks after a viral outbreak.

Enterovirus D68 has caused an increasing number of infections during the past decade and is associated with acute flaccid myelitis, a polio-like condition that mostly affects children and causes sudden weakness and paralysis.

The antibodies may have clinical benefit as antiviral drugs to treat potentially life-threatening infections in elderly and immunosuppressed patients.