IIT Madras Team Develops Novel Database On Coronavirus Antibodies

Chennai/Hyderabad, March 20 (Maxim News):  Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have developed an online open source database of coronavirus neutralizing antibodies. 

The database called ‘Ab-CoV‘ contains detailed information about all Covid-related antibodies identified so far, including the source of each antibody, and the viral protein(s) and virus strains they recognise, the institute said in a statement today. 

“Ab-CoV” can also aid in the development of drugs against new variants of SARS-CoV-2.  The Ab-CoV database includes 1,780 coronavirus related antibodies, including 211 nanobodies and contains more than 3,200 data points on half maximal inhibitory concentration, half maximal effective concentration  and binding affinity. 

The information compiled in this database, published in the peer-reviewed journal Bioinformatics, can assist researchers in antibody engineering, analyzing immune escape for known and future variants of SARS-C0V-2, computational studies on neutralizing antibodies and relating structural features with binding affinity. 

“some of the data in the Ab-CoV database has already been used to understand the relationship between structural features and binding affinities of spike protein-antibody complexes as well as antibody repurposing said M.Michael Gromiha, Faculty, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Madras, in the statement. 

“Ab-CoV also has a wide range of search and display options through which users can directly search and download the processed data, based on the antibody’s  name, viral protein epitope, neutralised viral strain, antibody and nanobody.  It also has the option to view structures of antibodies or viral proteins in a 3D model, Gromiha added. 

Although large amounts of experimental and computational data have been stored online to understand the virus, the emergence of new variants prompted researchers to gather new and comprehensive information.  such efforts will help to develop newer drugs and deal better with disasters that affect human health and economies, globally.  (Maxim News) 

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