Researchers at Utrecht University and Erasmus Medical Center have developed a human antibody that they say offers potential for the prevention and treatment of the COVID-19 coronavirus. It's called 47d11.
It's important not to give false hopes, but the discovery is promising, says the research leader Berend-Jan Bosch on website of Utrecht University.
The world's first antibody against coronavirus
They claim that the antibody “neutralizes” the virus and “offers the potential to prevent and/or treat COVID-19, and perhaps also other future emerging diseases in humans caused by viruses of the Sarbecovirus subgenus.”
“As far as we know, this is the first antibody in the world that blocks this infection,” Grosveld explained to the magazine. “Finding something like this is very rare,” he said.
Research is currently in peer review before it can be published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.
The researchers are also seeking the collaboration of a pharmaceutical company capable of producing the antibody on a large scale as a medicine.
“Before it can be marketed, the antibody must go through an extensive development phase and be tested for toxicological properties”, said Professor Frank Grosveld.
To cure and also to diagnose
“In addition to development as a medicine, we want to use the antibody to set up a diagnostic test: one that everyone can do at home, so that people can easily find out whether they have an infection or not,” says Grosveld.
Grosveld says taking a medicine based on this coronavirus antibody stops the infection and gives the patient time to recover.
Of course, there is no better treatment than preventive treatment, e.g many work on a coronavirus vaccine. “Development of a vaccine can take up to two years,” notes the researcher. “Our drug can arrive much sooner, even in a month. It is more expensive to produce, but more readily available." The 47D11 antibody will be tested on patients in about a month.
Caution
The virologist Ab Osterhaus, involved in the research, said al Telegraaf that optimism about a drug must be tempered. For some reason the coronavirus antibody may not definitely lead to a drug. “We don't think you can make a few kilos of this medicine and save the world with a snap of the fingers.”
