Cows that manipulate animal immune DNA to produce antibodies that can be used in humans are being used to develop COVID-19 treatments. Provided by SAb biotherapeutics
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2021 is the year of the new year (辛丑年). Cows are considered to be the most useful animals in human history that generously give everything from meat to milk. Fetal bovine serum is still used as an indispensable material for biotechnology, such as being used to grow stem cells. In the new year, the’Year of the White Cow’, which is known to give auspicious energy, it is even giving humans the expectation that the cow will provide humans with a cure to overcome the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19, Corona 19).
US biotech company SAb Biotherapeutics is using genetically engineered cows to develop COVID-19 antibody treatment’SAb-185′ in November last year from the US Agency for Advanced Biomedical Research and Development (BARDA) and US$57.5 million (approx. 62.5 billion won) was supported. This includes small research in Operation Warp Speed, where the US is mobilizing all budgets to rapidly develop a vaccine and treatment for Corona 19.
Cows are considered good antibody factories. By altering the DNA related to animal immunity, antibodies that can be used for humans can be produced, and cattle are the largest among animals capable of this. Not only does the amount of blood containing the antibody itself is large, but the concentration of the antibody is twice as high as that of human blood. “One cow per month can produce antibodies to treat hundreds of patients,” said Eddie Sullivan, CEO of SAb Biotherapeutics.
Antibody treatments currently under development are’monoclonal antibodies’ that attack only one specific site of the virus. On the other hand, cattle can make’polyclonal antibodies’ that attack several places with the Corona 19 virus. Polyclonal antibodies not only increase the efficacy of treatment, but also increase the probability of passing through virus mutations. In June of last year, SAb Biotherapeutics also announced a study that the efficacy of neutralizing antibodies is four times higher than that of human plasma. SAb-185 is undergoing phase 1 clinical trials in normal and mild and moderate corona19 patients.
‘Cosmo’, a black male calf with only white hooves, possesses the’Sry’ gene that allows mammals to grow into males, not in sex chromosomes, but also in general genes, and 75% of offspring are born male. Provided by Davis University of California
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There is also a groundbreaking study that saves cattle lives just as they save human life. Instead of increasing the amount of meat provided to humans, it is a genetic technology that reduces cattle slaughtered. Allison Van Inenam, a professor at the University of California, University of California, USA, has produced a 50kg black male calf’Cosmo’ in April of last year with CRISPR genetic scissors technology that won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year. Cosmo engineered the’Sry’ gene, which allows mammals to grow into males, into their chromosomes so that 75% of their offspring are born males. This is the first time a cow is born through gene editing in an embryo
Animal chromosomes are divided into general chromosomes and X and Y sex chromosomes. Among them, the Sry gene is in the Y sex chromosome, and it becomes male if it has a Y chromosome. In Cosmo, the Sry gene was inserted into general chromosome 17, a safe zone that does not interfere with other gene regulation. Cosmo’s offspring inherit the X chromosome, but half of them inherit the Sry gene from the normal chromosome and become males. Half of the offspring are males, and a quarter have female sex chromosomes, but grow into males.
The reason why more bulls are deliberately born is because they produce more beef. Hydrogen is 15% more efficient at converting feed to body weight than cows and weighs more. The United States has regulated gene-edited animals as pharmaceuticals, but on the 21st of last month, the US Department of Agriculture decided to supervise gene editing in edible animals, and the way to use Cosmo is open. Professor Ban Inenam said, “The number of cattle needed to produce the same amount of beef will be reduced, which will benefit both the livestock industry and the environment.”
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