There has been a new groundbreaking discovery by scientists who are trying to develop treatments for the coronavirus. Scientists have discovered the antibody that prevents the deadly virus from infecting human cells.
Scientists built on what they found with the SARS coronavirus to identify a potential method of neutralizing COVID-19.
Sky News reports that scientists found that the same antibody that stops the SARS virus from infecting human cells could also block the coronavirus from infecting human cells too. This discovery was all a peer-reviewed study published on Monday in the journal Nature Communications.
Researchers discovered, while testing their collection of antibodies on cultured human cells, that an antibody binds to a specific part present in both SARS and the virus causing COVID-19.
The groundbreaking discovery could help in the first step towards developing a fully-human antibody for the treatment or prevention of the coronavirus.
Dr. Berend-Jan Bosch, the co-lead author of the study, said the antibody “has the potential to alter the course of infection in the infected host, support virus clearance, or protect an uninfected individual that is exposed to the virus.”
Dr. Frank Grosveld, the study’s other co-lead author, said the discovery provided “a strong foundation for additional research to characterize this antibody and begin development as a potential COVID-19 treatment”.
Development was able to go swiftly because a mouse that had been genetically engineered to contain human genes was used.
This allows researchers to develop “human” antibodies without testing them on living people.
“This is groundbreaking research.” – Dr Jingsong Wang, the chief executive of HBM.
Scientists from Utrect University in the Netherlands, as well as the Erasmus Medical Centre and the company Harbour BioMed (HBM) built on their knowledge of SARS to discover a way of neutralizing the coronavirus.
This is a huge step in quickly developing an effective treatment.
The study is published in Nature Communications.
