The Mayo Clinic is treating patients with COVID-19 with monoclonal antibody treatments. Monoclonal relates an antibody derived from a single cell in large quantities for use against a specific antigen.
An antigen is a toxin or other foreign substance that induces an immune response in the body, especially the production of antibodies.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization to use bamlanivimab and casirivimab-imdevimab to treat confirmed COVID-19 in patients who have mild or moderate symptoms, and at a high risk of disease progression and hospitalization.
The treatments are given in the outpatient setting at infusion centers across Mayo Clinic’s locations in the Midwest.
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Dr. Raymund Razonable, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert, discusses how the treatment works, who is eligible to receive it, and why testing for early detection of COVID-19 is so important. https://youtu.be/mFKwaQuFEZM
The monoclonal antibody treatments help keep patients out of Mayo Clinic hospitals and decrease the severity of the disease. To date, Mayo Clinic has infused over 400 patients.
“The FDA has given emergency use authorization only for high-risk individuals.
Those individuals are 65 years and older; have underlying conditions, such as diabetes or chronic heart disease, as well as those who have a compromised immune system, such as, patients with cancer and those who have undergone transplantation; those who are receiving high doses of steroids or other immunosuppressive drugs,” says Dr. Razonable.
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