Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Ma Charissa Caayao confirms white and red-blood cell counts on a test sample aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy in the Pacific Ocean, March 26, 2020. The Mercy deployed to serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, allowing those hospitals to focus their efforts on COVID-19 cases. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Erwin Jacob Miciano)
An antibody has been identified that prevents the coronavirus from infecting human cells, according to a new study release by scientists who have expertise in coronaviruses including the SARS infection that created havoc just a few years ago.
A report at Sky.com explains that the new possibilities were revealed by scientists from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, working in conjunction with those from Erasmus Medical Center and the company Harbour BioMed.
Together they have “identified a potential method of neutralizing COVID-19,” the report said, describing the step as “groundbreaking.”
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What they have done, Sky.com said, is to have discovered an antibody that prevents the SARS virus from infecting human cells, and that also could block the new coronavirus from infecting cells too, explained the peer reviewed study published this week in Nature Communications.
“Testing their collection of antibodies on cultured human cells, researchers discovered one which binds to a specific part which is present in both SARS and the virus causing COVID-19,” Sky.com reported.
The find may not be an instant solution to the threat that has infected more than three million worldwide and killed more than 240,000, but, the report said, it could offer a step toward developing “a fully human antibody to treat or prevent” COVID-19.
It is, in fact, a “strong foundation for additional research to characterize this antibody and begin development as a potential COVID-19 treatment,” said Dr. Frank Grosveld, a co-author of the study.
His co-author, Dr. Berend-Jan Bosh, said in the Sky.com report that it “has potential to alter the course of infection in the infected host, support virus clearance or protect an uninfected individual that is exposed.”
The antibody was developed in Harbour BioMed’s technology lab, which uses “humanized” mice to allow researchers to develop treatments without testing them on living people, the report said.
