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Research over the last nine months has shown that fragments of antibodies developed from llamas by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine can disable COVID-19 in animals -- including variants like Delta.
The antibody fragments first showed the capability of disabling COVID-19 in a petri dish, according to a news release Tuesday from the school.
Research has shown through microscopic observation that the "nanobodies" work in three distinct ways against the virus -- a finding that could provide guidance for developing "future vaccines and therapeutics that may work against a wide variety of coronaviruses," not just COVID-19, the news release stated.
The nanobodies, which can be delivered through an inhalant, reduced the number of virus particles in the respiratory tracts of hamsters a million-fold, according to an article published Tuesday in Nature Communications. The senior author was Yi Shi, assistant professor of cell biology at Pitt -- who worked on the research with scientists from Case Western Reserve University, the news release stated.
The researchers isolated a variety of nanobodies but chose eight -- of three main types -- to observe closely.
Cryoelectron microscopy showed that one type "outcompete(s)" human cells in binding to the spikes of viruses and thus disabling the viruses; that another type binds to a region of the virus spike common to different COVID permutations, thus showing a persistent effectiveness; and that a third type binds to a part of the virus spike to prevent it from folding in a way the virus needs for entry into human cells, according to the news release.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.