Good news! Ilama and Camel Antibodies Can Kill Covid 19
Camels are apparently immune to Covid 19.
GHENT– After camels are believed by experts to be able to kill the COVID-19 virus, now Ilama animal antibodies are likely to have a global role in helping to fight Covid-19.
As reported by Mediacorp News, this is if clinical trials conducted by a Belgian biomedical company go smoothly as promised.
Even Reuters reported that researchers from the VIB-UGent Medical Biotechnology Center in Ghent said antibodies taken from an Ilama named ‘Winter’ had succeeded in stopping the spread of the corona virus, including its variants in laboratory tests.
“This technology, which is the biggest advance, looks to increase the role of vaccines in protecting people with weakened immune systems, as well as treating infected individuals in hospitals,” said ExeVir VIB-UGent Chief Medical Officer Domunique Tersago.
“Remarkably, these antibodies can bind to certain parts of the Protein S of the virus and we don’t see mutations at high levels there,” he said.
Antibodies also show a strong degree of neutralization against the highly contagious Delta variant.
According to VIB-UGent Group Head Xavier Saelens, like the llama and other camel species, Winter produces a smaller and more stable version of the antibody than other animals.
“Its small size allows it to reach targets to parts of the virus that are difficult to access by normal antibodies,” he said.
The search for a Covid-19 treatment is a follow-up to research conducted in 2016 involving the use of Illama animal antibodies against the SARS and MERS viruses.
Previously, a scientist from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pioneered research on the immunity of camels to the Covid-19 virus. This research is believed to provide important answers on how to deal with the global pandemic and treat Covid-19 patients.
According to Al Arabiya, veterinary microbiologist in Dubai and head of the UAE’s Central Animal Research Laboratory Ulrich Wernery and his team injected dead samples of the Covid-19 virus into camels. This experiment is to check the antibodies produced by these desert animals.
Camels were previously known to cause Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the coronavirus that preceded Covid-19. MERS causes acute respiratory illness, digestive problems, kidney failure and even death. However, recent research suggests that camels are actually immune, even to the new coronavirus.without
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