As the fight against COVID-19 continues, scientists have turned to an unlikely source for a potentially effective treatment: tiny antibodies naturally generated by llamas.
While the world has welcomed the news of multiple vaccines against COVID-19, the search for effective treatments for those who contract the virus is ongoing. Now scientists are looking to what might seem to be an unlikely source: the South American llama.
Researchers are using the ultrabright X-rays of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, to help turn naturally generated llama antibodies into potentially effective therapies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Antibodies are the immune system’s natural defense against infection, and when extracted from blood, they can be used to design treatments and vaccines.
“Llamas generate these nanobodies naturally in high yields, and they fit into the pockets on the surface of proteins that larger-size antibodies can’t access.” — Jason McLellan, The University of Texas at Austin.
Read more at DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Photo Credit: sudekumdesign via Pixabay