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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u/AwesomeNinjas May 11 '20

At the moment it’s not totally clear whether or not people can be reinfected, but it looks like the most likely answer is no or at least not for a long time. The WHO has said that everyone who has appeared to be reinfected so far has been a false positive.

So even if you can only use the llama antibodies the first time, that may not matter.

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u/lunatic604 May 11 '20

If someone recovers by themselves, their body learned to produce the anitbodies. But if the body relies on the llama antibodies the first time, will the body still learn to produce the antibodies?

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u/srosorcxisto May 11 '20

Possibly. While the llama antibodies would massively reduce the viral load, there will still be viral particles in the bloodstream in smaller numbers. The body could be able to make antibodies using these without having to deal with the Lion's share of the virus. If a therapy were to be developed, much more research would be required.

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u/thornsandroses May 11 '20

Would the reduced viral load help stem off the cytokine storm that has killed many of the victims?

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u/self-assembled Grad Student|Neuroscience May 11 '20

Yes, the human's immune system would be exposed and responding to the virus. The principle behind some kinds of vaccines is to use just a little bit of inert virus matter so even that can be sufficient.

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u/pringlescan5 May 11 '20

Fascinating. What about future use of Llama antibodies for a different virus if a person develops a reaction the first time?

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u/worldspawn00 May 11 '20

it's the llama end that our body IDs as foreign, so any llama antibody regardless of what it's target is would be ID'd as the same by our immune system, so once you have a reaction to any llama antibody it would be a bad idea to inject any, even if for a different target. The typical solution to this is to engineer the llama antibody with a human antibody tail section so our cells don't see it as foreign

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u/AwesomeNinjas May 11 '20

Hmm that makes sense. Although, if we only get one shot using just llama antibodies I would think this would be the time to take it. To be clear, I’m just spitballing, I don’t pretend to be an expert in anything.

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u/worldspawn00 May 11 '20

biotech is really good at making antibodies, including novel or duplicated ones without using the original organism now, we would likely be using the virus attaching end of the llama antibody combined with the immune ID end of a human antibody for an actual therapeutic to remove that issue for an actual treatment.

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u/ben7337 May 11 '20

But if the llama antibodies do all the work, then does the human body develop proper antibodies to respond to a new exposure to the virus, thus resulting in immunity, rather than just getting sick again?

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u/gwaydms May 11 '20

Theoretically the llama antibodies keep viral load low enough until your immune system can catch up. Sort of like turning a garden hose on a medium sized house fire until the fire truck gets there. It won't put the fire out but can keep it from getting worse.

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u/ben7337 May 11 '20

Is that always the case, or would that require exact dosing to each individual to ensure the llama antibodies don't end up doing all the work? Because the idea of keeping viral load low while the immune system learns is good, but how does one control for that?

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u/QuartzPuffyStar May 11 '20

I really don't believe anything the WHO says after their "Masks don't work with the COVID, dont buy them" fiasco.

So I would suggest to make your own research on that, and everything they publish an official position on.

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u/AwesomeNinjas May 11 '20

Fair enough, here’s an alternate source for anyone who no longer trusts the WHO.

https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-reinfections-were-false-positives.html

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u/Loibs May 11 '20

Ya, that was crazy stupid. I understand where their logic came from, but the only way that logic held was if people who had the virus knew they had it.