Lockup Your Llamas

[WHITT]

Covid: Immune therapy from llamas shows promise

A Covid therapy derived from a llama named Fifi has shown "significant potential" in early trials.

It is a treatment made of "nanobodies", small, simpler versions of antibodies, which llamas and camels produce naturally in response to infection.

Once the therapy has been tested in humans, scientists say, it could be given as a simple nasal spray - to treat and even prevent early infection.

Prof James Naismith described nanobodies as "fantastically exciting".

Prof Naismith, who is one of the lead researchers and director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute in Oxfordshire, explained that coronavirus-infected rodents treated with the new nanobody nasal spray fully recovered within six days.

The treatment has, so far, been tested only in those lab animals, but Public Health England said it was among the "most effective SARS-CoV-2 neutralising agents" it had ever tested.

This apparent covid-fighting potency comes from the strength with which nanobodies bind to the virus.

Just like our own antibodies, virus-specific nanobodies latch on to and bind to viruses and bacteria that invade our bodies. This binding essentially tags an invading virus with an immune "red flag", to allow the rest of the body's immune armoury to target it for destruction. The nanobodies that these researchers produced - with the help of a llama's immune system - bind particularly tightly.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58628689

[tanyev]

1. Oh, no. The antivas are going to start doing terrible things to llamas, aren't they?

[EYESORE 9001]

2. I wonder if this therapy could be beneficial

in fighting the common cold as well. Sure, it seems mundane in comparison to COVID-19, but to those with weak or compromised immune systems, a bad cold could be bad news.

[mopinko]

4. yeah, i was lamenting how chronic illness

bleeds your life away 1 sick day at a time.
nursing a bruised tendon today, related to underlying illness by the fact that i was tired and clumsy from a not that big effort.
if i could get all those days back, i'd prolly live to be 120.

[ARPad95]

7. There still isn't a CMV (cytomegalovirus) vaccine. Moderna planned to start Phase 3 study in 2021.

Last edited Wed Sep 22, 2021, 01:46 PM - Edit history (1)

https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-completes-enrollment-cytomegalovirus-cmv-vaccine-mrna

"The Moderna team is working diligently to start the Phase 3 study in 2021.”

About Cytomegalovirus (CMV)

CMV is a common pathogen and member of the herpesvirus family. Congenital (present at or before birth) CMV infection results when infected mothers transmit the virus to their unborn child, and it is the leading infectious cause of birth defects in the United States with approximately 25,000 newborns in the U.S. infected every year.1,2 Approximately 20 percent of infected infants will have birth defects that include neurodevelopmental disabilities such as hearing loss, vision impairment, varying degrees of learning disability and decreased muscle strength and coordination.3 There is currently no approved vaccine for the prevention of CMV infection.

CMV infection is common in young children who have never been exposed to the virus, and is acquired and spread through contact with saliva, breastmilk, mucus and urine. As a result, young children can be a major source of infection for pregnant women, particularly mothers, daycare workers, preschool teachers, therapists and nurses. Efforts to create a vaccine began in the 1970s, and in 1999 the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) designated CMV as a “highest priority” category for vaccine development. Prior studies of investigational vaccines that did not protect against the CMV pentamer antigen demonstrated limited efficacy against CMV infection and limited durability of immune response.

Funding was probably diverted to COVID-19 vaccine. I wonder if the COVID-19 pandemic helped to decrease the number of women exposed to CMV during pregnancy last year and into 2021 (due to mask and social distancing mandates)? 5,000 babies born every year in the USA with serious birth defects because of a virus is nothing to sneeze at. [pun intended]

I'm one of the 1 out of every 200 people who donates blood that is CMV negative. Yes, I'm special.

[Girard442]

3. Kiss a llama once a day.

Could work.

I kid, but bravo to researchers who cast their nets wide.

[EYESORE 9001]

6. You needn't get close enough for a kiss

[ShazzieB]

9. I think that's an alpaca.

For one thing.. llamas don't have that fringe on their forehead. Hilarious, though!

https://www.alpacadirect.com/blogs/alpaca-direct-blog/alpaca-vs-llama-7-ways-to-tell-the-difference

[luvtheGWN]

19. That was just a wet air kiss!

[FSogol]

5. Wow, I had no idea that Prof James Naismith, inventor of basketball, was still with us!

The RW is pushing everything as an alternative to the vaccine. Yesterday, they were going on about gout medicine as a treatment. Wish I owned a product or medication. I'd be proposing it too.

[Harker]

18. I'm pretty sure you could come up with some way of filling

hundreds of little bottles to sell to anti-vaxers.

And, yeah... he must be very nearly 160 years old.

[jaxexpat]

8. It'll never play in the old Confederacy.

They'll never trade their bible thumping for Buddhism.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Inhale the Dolly Llama?

Yes I could see some resistance from the vaccination-grows-microchips crowd.

[jaxexpat]

14. Yeah, smoked it too......But didn't inhale.

But if it's sold as an alternative to the vaccine and a surefire way to "own the libs", they'll pay any price.

[Richard D]

21. I hear . . .

. . . Llama piss nose spray is the next big thing!

[Peccadillo]

11. How ingenious of the Derp State

To put the tracking chips in llamas.

[sdfernando]

12. OK..since so many STUPID people are using horse dewormer

and gargling Betadine....how long before they start to gargle Llama piss?

[Hugin]

13. Or you could simply grow your own...

By getting the damn vaccines!



No, I don't have anything against forward looking basic research. But, there's an effective preventative available for COVID, right now... TODAY! Get it! It's free!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. The key words are "early trials".

This is another example of early reporting of something that almost invariable doesn't live up to the promise.

I've learned to always be skeptical of these kinds of stories.

[Texin]

16. I read about lamas having natural immunity very early in the Covid outbreak.

I thought at the time that this would probably be the swiftest route to preventing infections, but here it is nearly a year and a half on and this is resurfacing now. I wonder why they didn't jump on this until now? Maybe not as much money in it for big pharma.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

17. Llama owners are always looking for a new way to get rich from raising them

They probably started this rumor.

[TalenaGor]

20. should be an easy jump from horse dewormer pills to snorting llama juice

[GoneOffShore]

22. This story has been ongoing for over a year.