GSK, Vir Use CRISPR, Artificial Intelligence to Find COVID-19 Cure

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology recently announced a collaboration to enhance COVID-19 drug discovery through the use of CRISPR and artificial intelligence.

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The partnership will initially focus on accelerating the development of specific antibody candidates using Vir’s monoclonal antibody platform technology and GSK’s expertise in functional genomics. 

Vir’s platforms, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832, have already shown a similarity for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and researchers believe they show great potential to neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 sequence.  

“Vir’s unique antibody platform has precedented success in identifying and developing antibodies as treatments for multiple pathogens, and it is highly complementary with our R&D approach to focus on the science of immunology,” Hal Barron, MD, chief scientific officer and president of GSK, said in the announcement. 

“I am very excited that the talent and passion of our two companies will come together to develop solutions for multiple diseases, including the very promising antibody candidates targeting COVID-19.”

The companies will also use CRISPR screening and artificial intelligence to uncover anti-coronavirus compounds that target cell host genes.

The CRISPR screening and machine learning approach will identify targets that may prevent viral infection. Vir has identified various potential treatments against flu and other respiratory pathogens, as well as hepatitis B virus. The biotechnology company will now turn their focus to SARS-CoV-2.

CRISPR is a gene-editing tool to edit human genes, also known as in vivo gene editing. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, access to genetic material in the body is vital to boosting  potential drug and vaccine treatment. 

The use of CRISPR has been heavily criticized, but the technology has led to recent successes, including in a first-ever gene therapy clinical trial run by Oregon Health & Science University to address a blindness-causing gene mutation.

The first patient living with the genetic blindness, LCA10, was recently treated through the clinical trial. Experts voiced that this outcome is “promising” because patients currently living with the disease had no treatment options prior to the trial. 

Cynthia Collins, president and CEO of Editas Medicine said that the outcome is a “truly historic event for science, medicine, and most importantly for people living with the eye disease.” 

The outcome boosts confidence that CRISPR has significant potential to treat other devastating diseases, such as COVID-19. 

Tim Abbott, PhD, a candidate at Stanford University’s bioengineering department, reviewed results of an experiment that used an approach called PAC-MAN (Prophylactic Antiviral CRISPR in huMAN cells), to combat coronavirus by attacking the virus’s genetic makeup that allows it to penetrate human cells and then use the cell’s machinery to self-replicate, the article stated.

Researchers found that CRISPR had reduced the amount of virus in the solution by 90 percent. Experts believe that these results show that CRISPR-based tools may be useful against deadly viruses, like COVID-19 and any future viruses. 

“The PAC-MAN approach is potentially a rapidly implementable pan-coronavirus strategy to deal with emerging pandemic strains,” the authors wrote.

GSK will invest $250 million in Vir Biotechnology to gain access to similar technology.

Research efforts will also include leveraging GKS’s vaccine technologies and Vir’s ability to identify “neutralizing epitopes that are present across entire viral families.” Both companies hope to launch a Phase 2 clinical trial in the next three to five months.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that multiple therapeutic approaches, used in combination or in sequence, will be necessary to stop this coronavirus pandemic. It is likely that the current coronavirus outbreak will not be the last,” said George Scangos, PhD, CEO of Vir Biotechnology.

“These insights are informing our scientific approach and we are pleased to join forces on the execution of this strategy with GSK, who have a like-minded R&D strategy, a deep expertise in vaccines and an impressive global reach to bring medicines to people around the world.”