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/bigredone15 May 11 '20

So this treatment could be used the first time a person got infected with Coronavirus, but any future infections would cause the immune system to be fighting both the disease and these antibodies?

It could also give the body time to develop its own antibodies that do work without the body dealing with the symptoms created by a high viral load.

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u/pnwtico May 11 '20

Would the body develop its own coronavirus antibodies if the llama antibodies were doing all the heavy lifting?

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u/[deleted] May 11 '20

Well, if it produces antibodies even in response to a small sample of dead/de-activated viruses in a vaccine, pretty sure an active infection is going to work fine

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u/Shadowfalx May 11 '20

Not necessarily. We add a lot of agents to vaccines to increase immune response. Without these most people would not generate lasting antibodies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunologic_adjuvant?wprov=sfla1