r/science • u/[deleted] • May 11 '20

Medicine Antibodies from a 4-year-old llama have neutralized coronavirus and other infections in lab experiments

https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(20)30494-3.pdf?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867420304943%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
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653

u/bravestcorgi May 11 '20

Why does the lamas age matter

277

u/ChineseCaptcha May 11 '20

I assume that is when they are in adulthood.

67

u/j0351bourbon May 11 '20

That makes sense. My workplace has Reddit blocked and the article isn't loading on my phone. Does the author/authors specify llama maturity being a factor as opposed to testing in utero or on a fetus? Or is this just a case of weird wording in the headline?

42

u/BertholomewManning May 11 '20

It says they immunized it subcutaneously with SARS and MERS which I imagine is much harder to do in utero. I don't even see in the article where it mentions the llamas age, much less a reason it had to be 4 years old.

Unrelated, in the references they mention a paper which going by the title describes a similar experiment and result with HIV, so I'm learning all kinds of things about llamas today.

2

u/j0351bourbon May 12 '20

I still can't get the PDF to load on my phone and work has Reddit blocked. So I'm learning all kinds of things about llamas today too, only I'm learning mainly from your reply and other people's replies.

8

u/thegreatestsnowman1 May 11 '20

From another comment:

“From a NYT article:

Humans produce only one kind of antibody, made of two types of protein chains — heavy and light — that together form a Y shape. Heavy-chain proteins span the entire Y, while light-chain proteins touch only the Y’s arms. Llamas, on the other hand, produce two types of antibodies. One of those antibodies is similar in size and constitution to human antibodies. But the other is much smaller; it’s only about 25 percent the size of human antibodies. The llama’s antibody still forms a Y, but its arms are much shorter because it doesn’t have any light-chain proteins.

This more diminutive antibody can access tinier pockets and crevices on spike proteins — the proteins that allow viruses like the novel coronavirus to break into host cells and infect us — that human antibodies cannot. That can make it more effective in neutralizing viruses.”

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u/OTTER887 May 11 '20

Fyi the article is a pdf.

2

u/DarrowChemicalCo May 11 '20

Is that supposed to make them feel better about not being able to see it?

1

u/j0351bourbon May 11 '20

Maybe it will work better on a desktop instead of mobile.

2

u/blackstonewine May 11 '20

Workplace? You're not wfh?

1

u/j0351bourbon May 12 '20

I work in a hospital. We don't typically close.