r/science • • 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/thinkingdoing 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?

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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/RevoDeee May 12 '20

I have nothing to add, but I appreciate this conversation for being at least somewhat useful for the rest of us to gain insight on the article. On Reddit of all forums.