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According to a new study, a special type of antibody produced by flames could help fight COVID-19. The antibody binds tightly to an essential protein in the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This protein, called the spike protein, allows the infection to break down in the host cells. Initial tests indicate that the antibody blocks viruses that show that this spike protein infects cells in culture.
When the flame’s immune systems recognize foreign invaders, for example bacteria and viruses, these animals (and different camelids, for example alpacas) produce two types of antibodies: one that is similar to human antibodies and another that is approximately one quarter of the size. These smaller ones, called single domain antibodies or nanobodies, can be nebulized and used in an inhaler.
Daniel Wrapp, a graduate student in McLellan’s lab and co-author of the article, said: “That makes them potentially really interesting as a drug for a respiratory pathogen because it’s delivering it directly to the site of infection.”
The scientists collected enough blood and isolated antibodies that bound to each version of the spike protein. One indicated the true promise of stopping an infection showing peak SARS-CoV-1 proteins from cultured contaminating cells.
The antibody called VHH-72 binds strongly to the peak proteins in SARS-CoV-1. It also prevents a pseudotyped virus, a virus that cannot make people sick and which has been genetically engineered to display copies of the SARS-CoV-1 tip protein on its surface, from infecting cells.
At the time that SARS-CoV-2 emerged and triggered the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientists pondered whether the antibody they found for SARS-CoV-1 would also be viable against its viral cousin.
They found that it also bound to the SARS-CoV-2 peak protein, but weakly. To make it more effective, they designed two copies of VHH-72, which at the time were shown to neutralize a pseudotyped virus with SARS-CoV-2 sport spike proteins.
This is the first known antibody that kills both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2.
Dorien De Vlieger, a postdoctoral scientist at the Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) at the University of Ghent, said: “I thought this would be a small side project. Now the scientific impact of this project became greater than I could have expected. It’s amazing how unpredictable viruses can be. “
Other co-authors on the study include Gretel M. Torres, Wander Van Breedam, Kenny Roose, Loes van Schie, Markus Hoffmann, Stefan Pöhlmann, Barney S. Graham, and Nico Callewaert.
The study is carried out in collaboration between the University of Texas at Austin, the National Institutes of Health and the University of Ghent in Belgium.
Magazine reference:
- The final document will appear here on May 5: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30494-3
