Llames can keep cure in Covid: Study

Llama just say – this was probably not on your Bingo 2025 card.

A new study suggests that long-necked, unclear mammals may be our secret weapon against Covid-19.

Researchers in Belgium found that special particles in Llama’s blood can help us develop powerful new treatments that continue to work even when the mutaton virus.

This is a big deal. Most existing therapies, like monoclonal antibodies, go after parts of the frequently changing virus. So when new variants appear, those medicines tend to stop working.

So scientists knocked down the script. Instead of pursuing the goals in motion, they followed a portion of the virus that rarely changes: the so-called “S2 subunit” of the point protein, which plays a key role in helping the virus infects human cells.

To try the idea, the team turned into a mocha colored llama named Winter.

Llames produce ultra-weak antibodies-the smaller way than those in humans-which can squeeze into difficult points to reach the virus.

Researchers found that some of the winter antibodies were able to cling to the “under -unit” of the virus and freeze it in place, preventing it from changing the form needed to infect human cells.

In animal evidence, antibodies provided strong protection against the virus, even in small doses.

Better still, when scientists tried to force the virus to mutated and resist antibodies, he fought. Some variants that spread were weak and much less contagious.

“This region is so important to the virus that it cannot be easily mutated without weakening the virus itself,” Dr. said Xavier Saelens, senior author of the study and a major investigator at the VIB-SUGENT Center for Medical Biotechnology in Belgium.

“This gives us a rare advantage: a target that is essential and stable throughout the variants,” he said.

The worst of the pandemia may be in the back, but Covid is still a threat, especially for people with weakened immune systems.

Last year alone, the CDC reported more than 47,000 Covid -related deaths in the US, including over 200 children.

For years, monoclonal antibodies have helped protect patients at high risk from serious illness. But while the mutated virus, many of those therapies lost their advantage against the latest variants.

The FDA has withdrawn emergency authorization for some therapy, leaving fewer tools on the shelf for patients.

“This work provides a strong basis for developing future generation antibodies that can be vital in combating not only current but future coronavirus threats,” Saelens said.

Here in New York City, the virus is still circulating quietly.

The average number of cases confirmed last week was 224 a day – although experts say the real number is likely higher. There were also 14 hospitalizations in the virus -related days.