Llama antibodies shows positive signs of treatment for coronavirus: study

Antibodies from llamas are able to neutralize the virus that causes COVID-19 in lab tests, U.K. researchers said this week.

A team of researchers engineered small antibodies from llama blood cells, known as nanobodies, which bound tightly to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and blocked it from invading human cells.

The study was published Monday in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology and involved researchers from the Rosalind Franklin Institute, Oxford University, Diamond Light Source and Public Health England.

The small size and the simpler structure of llama antibodies compared to antibodies in human blood allows for “redesign” in the lab.

James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and the study’s lead researcher told the BBC the technique is like cutting a key that fits the coronavirus lock.

“With the llama’s antibodies, we have keys that don’t quite fit - they’ll go into the lock but won’t turn all the way round,” he said. “So we take that key and use molecular biology to polish bits of it, until we’ve cut a key that fits.”

Using blood containing human antibodies from critically ill patients has been shown to help treat patients. However, it is not “straightforward” in identifying certain people with the right antibodies and providing blood transfusion safely, the Rosalind Franklin Institute said, whereas a lab-made product could be made on demand and used earlier on.

The team is currently screening antibodies from Fifi, one of the “Franklin llamas” at the University of Reading that the scientists injected with harmless purified virus proteins.

The researchers are striving to test its antibody cocktail in animal trials this summer with hopes of starting human trials later this year, the BBC reported.