A Belgian study showed that Llama antibodies could soon be playing a role in preventing COVID-19 variants, if clinical trials get to receive approval, according to Reuters.
Researchers at the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology in Ghent say antibodies extracted from a llama named Winter attenuated the virulence of coronavirus infections, including variants, in laboratory testing.
The technology is going to fill in rather than replace vaccines by protecting people with weaker immune systems and treating infected people in hospitals. It is a potential “game-changer”, said Dominique Tersago, chief medical officer of VIB-UGent spin-off Exeter, according to the same source.
“The unusually small llama antibodies are able to bind to a specific part of the virus’s protein peak”, she said.
The antibodies also showed “strong neutralizing activity” against the highly infectious Delta variant, she added.
The researchers expect clinical trials in healthy volunteers, which began last week in partnership with Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB, as well as hospitalized patients in order to be equally effective.
The COVID-19 pandemic was first identified in China in 2019 and is still lasting now.
A China report suggested that COVID-19 passed from bats to Humans through another animal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
This study showed that transmission of SARS-COV-2 from bats to humans most likely occurred through another animal.
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