As scientists race to create more vaccines to combat the spread of the coronavirus, they’ve called upon llamas.
These woolly wonders are no stranger to medical research. Scientists have engineered special antibodies derived from them before to fight the flu. Now, neuroscientists hope to use llamas’ tiny and unique antibodies, called nanobodies, to prevent coronavirus infection.
On December 22, scientists from the National Institutes of Health reported that they had isolated promising nanobodies against COVID-19 from a llama named Cormac. Preliminary results suggest that one specific nanobody could detect coronavirus particles and grab hold of their spike proteins, thereby preventing them from attaching to and entering cells. Previous research has shown that, unlike normal human antibodies, nanobodies are small enough to squeeze into the little crevices on the surface of individual virus particles. In the case of influenza, treatments using engineered nanobodies have appeared especially promising for those whose immune systems do not respond as well to conventional vaccines.
Discover how researchers strung together llamas’ nanobodies to fight multiple strains of influenza virus at once:
Cormac the llama lives on a farm in Washington, where he contributes to scientific discovery. (Photo courtesy of Triple J Farms)
Credit: NOVA
