A new treatment for COVID-19
A new treatment for COVID-19 with... an animal. The remedy could be ready in 2016, but it did not interest anyone. A mixed team of researchers announces that they have discovered a new treatment against to the COVID-19.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (USA), the National Institutes of Health and Ghent University (Belgium) have announced that they have discovered a new treatment for COVID-19 by combining two natural antibodies produced by the blades. According to the scientists, the treatment is in the pre-clinical phase, undergoing pre-clinical and clinical trials before it can be approved for widespread use, a procedure that normally takes years, but which would it could be accelerated, amid the pandemic that has already swept across the planet. The authors of the study say that lamellae are animals that produce two types of antibodies, in response of their body to infection with a virus. Of the two types of antibodies, one is very similar to antibodies produced by the human body, while the other type has a more compact structure, with molecules that are a quarter of the size of those in the first category. What is the advantage of this treatment? This small size makes it possible for antibodies to be adapted for administration by inhalers, scientists say. The researchers were able to create a new treatment for COVID-19 infection by combining two molecules of these nanoscopic antibodies, which chemically bind to the proteins the new coronavirus uses to infect cells in the human body. "It is one of the first antibodies proven to neutralize SARS-CoV-2," said Jason McLellan, an adjunct professor of molecular biosciences at the University of Austin, co-author of the study.
Unlike a vaccine, which gives the body a chance to develop its own protection, antibody-based treatment can also be used by an infected person who has symptoms to treat the disease. The antibody discovered by the researchers, called VHH-72Fc, is based on other research done in the past by the team of specialists, on the two types of coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV), responsible for the outbreaks of SARS and MERS since 2000 -2004, respectively 2012-present. In 2016, the authors of this study injected several blades from a Belgian farm with spike proteins to immunize them against to the coronaviruses.