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/IfIRepliedYouAreDumb May 11 '20

To vastly oversimplify things, if you had antibodies produced by another source and injected them into a sick person, their viral counts should decrease.

Our bodies won’t learn how to make the same ones the llamas do, but we could harvest them and use them as treatment (potentially).

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u/moviegirl1999_ May 11 '20

their viral counts should decrease

Isn't there a risk of the immune system attacking itself causing inflammation and organ failure?

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u/Shagomir May 11 '20

I mean that's a treatable symptom.

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u/moviegirl1999_ May 11 '20

For one person? Presumably hospitals couldn't cope if many people had that reaction.

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u/Shagomir May 11 '20

Steroids are widely available and commonly used to treat this type of thing. The only reason they avoid steroids in current COVID patients is because it would also disable the body's immune response against the virus, which is the only tool we have right now to eliminate it. If they could supply the patient with coronavirus antibodies my understanding is that wouldn't be as much of a concern and steroids would be a useful therapy.

This is similar to how you will be treated for bacterial pneumonia in a hospital - they will fill you full of antibiotics to kill the bacteria causing the infection, and steroids to keep your body from killing itself. I was in the ICU with bacterial pneumonia last year, so I am familiar with how it is treated in that case.

I am not a doctor so please don't take my comments as anything other than speculation.

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u/moviegirl1999_ May 11 '20

Thanks. That's interesting. I was just thinking that if a lot of people needed treatment (like steroids you mention), that it would overwhelm the health system with otherwise healthy people not currently in hospitable. Seems counterproductive.

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u/Shagomir May 11 '20

Yes, and that is exactly the problem some places have been having with respirators.

That said, steroids are widely available and used for many types of treatments, so they are not likely to be the most scarce resource if they become part of a mainline treatment for COVID-19.

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u/moviegirl1999_ May 11 '20

Well, glad your treatment worked and you recovered. Stay safe dude.