Camel Antibody: Scientists Hope It Will Save Humanity From COVID-19

A new antibody that neutralizes all available variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus — from the first Wuhan one to the newest strains — was obtained by specialists from the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Federal Research Center of Biotechnology. This was possible thanks to a long-term immunization (vaccination) regimen for the Bactrian camel.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, despite the fact that the pandemic associated with it has already passed, continues to accumulate mutations, and this helps the disease evade the immune system. According to WHO, over 2.5 million people were infected with the coronavirus in 2024.

One of the effective means of combating the disease, in addition to the vaccine, is an antibody. This is a protein or a combination of proteins produced by the immune system in response to the invasion of antigens. It can act as an antidote (that is, it is administered at the first symptoms of the disease), binding to toxins or poisons and neutralizing their effect, preventing them from causing harm to the body.

Virus-neutralizing antibodies are used in clinics in severe cases. However, with prolonged circulation in the human population, SARS-CoV-2 accumulates many mutations, which is why previously effective antibodies stop recognizing its new variants.

Russian scientists, thanks to a long-term vaccination scheme of a Bactrian camel, managed to obtain a universal drug that currently works against all known strains of coronavirus. The antibody, which was given the name 1p1B10, protected the cells of laboratory mice and hamsters from infection. The effect was noticeable even when used in low concentrations. A scientific article about this was published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141813025059410?via%3Dihub.

Why was the choice made specifically for Bactrian camel antibodies? These animals are the focus of immunologists' attention due to their unique properties. According to scientists, camel antibodies differ from antibodies of other mammals, including humans, by the relatively small size of the antigen-recognizing region, for which they are often called nanoantibodies. "Due to their smaller size, they spread better throughout the body, while the efficiency of pathogen recognition by such antibodies can be extremely high," the scientists explain.

According to one of the authors of the work, head of the laboratory of protein-protein interactions from the Federal Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Sluchanko, it was possible to explain the effectiveness of the new neutralizing nanoantibody by obtaining a high-resolution crystal structure of the complex of this antibody with the RBD of the coronavirus.

MK reference:

RBD (receptor-binding domain) is a protein structure responsible for the penetration of the COVID-19 coronavirus into the body, its reproduction and the onset of the disease. It is with the help of RBD that the coronavirus infection is transmitted from person to person, increasing the number of infected people.

The anti-infection effect of the new antibody is due to the fact that the antibody binding site on the surface of the RBD coincides with the binding site of the ACE2 receptor on the surface of human cells.

“The new, extremely effective antibody turned out to be active against all coronavirus variants we tested: from the long-known Wuhan D614G (Wuhan variant – Auth.), Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5 to the much later variants XBB.1, XBB.1.5, XBB.1.9, XBB.1.16, JN.1 and KS.1,” comments the first author of the work, head of the laboratory of immunobiotechnology at the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology Dmitry Shcheblyakov.

Scientists admit that in the future, in the process of evolution, new variants of the coronavirus may appear that will be resistant to such treatment, but so far no such variant exists.