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If you had llamas as the cure for COVID-19 on your bingo card, you win right now!
Medical researchers in Belgium working with nanoantibodies in llamas are hopeful they could neutralize COVID and prevent infections.
According to the New York Post:
Researchers from the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology in Ghent, Belgium, have found that antibodies extracted from a llama named Winter have neutralized the virus, including its variants, in laboratory testing. The treatment would supplement vaccines by giving enhanced protection to people with weakened immune systems or help people who have been hospitalized with the virus, the company said.
Llama antibodies, which are unusually small, are able to bind to a specific part of the virus’ spike protein, blocking it from infecting cells. “Their small size … allows them to reach targets, reach parts of the virus that are difficult to access with conventional antibodies,” VIB-UGent group leader Xavier Saelens said.
If llamas are the savior we’ve been waiting for this whole time then the man upstairs must have a twisted sense of humor!