RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Based on research into the SARS coronavirus, scientists at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, as well as the Erasmus Medical Centre and Harbor BioMed (HBM), identified a potential method to neutralize Covid-19, according to Sky News on Monday, May 4th.
The research results can be found in the study published in Nature Communications magazine.
The researchers found that an antibody that prevents the SARS virus from infecting human cells can also prevent the novel coronavirus from doing the same. The breakthrough can be a major step in the treatment or prevention of the Covid-19 disease.
The neutralizing antibody “has the potential to alter the direction of infection in the infected host, help eliminate the virus or protect an uninfected individual from exposure to the virus,” said Berend-Jan Bosch, one of the study’s authors, quoted by Sky News. Frank Grosveld, fellow author of the study, adds that the finding provided “a solid foundation for further research”.
“The antibody used in this work is ‘wholly human’, allowing development to progress more rapidly and reducing the side effects related to the immune system,” they say. The all-human antibody is different from conventional therapeutic antibodies, which are typically developed in other species before they are ‘humanized’.