Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle (USA) have discovered an antibody that could be effective against Covid-19 and which is thought to be 530 times more powerful than any other antibody identified so far.
A team of scientists isolated the antibody from a blood sample taken from a Washington patient who survived the virus. The antibody in question is called CV30, and is a Y-shaped protein that interferes with the spines on the surface of the virus causing them to fragment and break.
In a press release to Nature Communications one of the scientists, Marie Pancera, said “Our study shows that this antibody neutralises the virus through two mechanisms. One is that it overlaps the target of the virus in human cells while the other induces the release or dissociation of part of the ‘spines’ from the rest of its ‘living body.”
Researchers now hope that CV30 may be useful in the treatment of Covid-19, not least because the mechanism of most vaccines against the disease are based on stimulating and training the immune system to produce antibodies against the coronavirus, which they recognise as’ threat ‘and neutralise it before the infection sets in.
However, for this to happen, the antibody must first be tested in the laboratory and only afterwards in humans.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
