Alpaca antibodies render coronavirus harmless
There are now 19 alpacas on the campus of the Universidad Austral in Valdivia in southern Chile. When the first cases of Covid-19 appeared, Rojas had to decide which alpaca should develop the antibodies against Sars-CoV-2 virus first. “So I thought: if the Buddhist teacher’s alpaca doesn’t have the best karma for it, which one?” He says and laughs. “After three weeks we had the first antibodies and they are among the most effective in the world.”
To do this, the researchers vaccinated Alpaca Buddha with a surface protein from the coronavirus and then took blood from it. This contained antibodies, so-called nanobodies, which neutralize Sars-CoV-2 viruses, i.e. render them harmless. They attach themselves to the surface of the virus, the so-called spike protein, and thus prevent the virus from penetrating other cells and infecting them.
–
