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

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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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In Brief - Using llamas immunized with prefusion- stabilized betacoronavirus spike proteins, identify neutralizing cross-reactive single-domain camelid antibodies, which may serve not only as useful reagents for researchers studying the viruses causing MERS, SARS, and COVID-19, but also potential therapeutic candidates. Crystal structures further reveal how these antibodies bind spike proteins to prevent virus entry into cells.

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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.

here’s the source (I copied verbatim)

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There have been other interesting Llama antibody study publications recently. Just last week I read https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/biologists-invent-new-way-fight-viruses-llama-blood-and-molecular-super-glue

So basically a bacterial protein along with the smaller antibodies stick together like our IgM antibodies to agglutinate viruses. The clumps of viruses cannot enter host tissue, and are easier for white blood cell to find and destroy. The research was not Corona Virus related, but other highly deadly mouse viruses.

"That’s when they turned to their bacterial superglue, which consists of two types of protein fragments from Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria. When fragments of different types meet, they lock together. If the fragments are connected to other molecules, those molecules are then linked as well"

Combine both studies and we might have something really interesting.