Llamas could help fight Covid-19: Study

Team Udayavani, May 18, 2020, 4:22 PM IST

A new study shows that antibodies from llamas can neutralize the virus that causes Covid-19. The study which was published in the journal found that antibodies in llamas’ blood could offer a defence against coronavirus.

Llamas have small antibodies that can sneak into spaces on viral proteins that are too tiny for human antibodies, helping them to fend off the threat. Scientists hope that the llama antibodies could help protect humans who have not been infected.

The research is a collaborative effort from The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), the National Institutes of Health and Ghent University in Belgium.

Xavier Saelens, Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) said, “What we have discovered is an antibody that happens to come from llamas, and that antibody can bind to the Covid-19 virus and also prevent it from infecting a cell”

International researchers owe their findings to a llama named Winter, a four-year-old resident of Belgium. Her antibodies had already proven themselves able to fight Sars and Mers, and now speculate that it could help in fighting Covid-19.