Scientists Identify New Antibody For Covid, Variants: Report

The antibody was identified by a team at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) and tested in animal models at UNC-Chapel Hill. Researchers published their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Research collaboration between scientists at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified and tested an antibody that limits the severity of infections from a variety of coronaviruses, including those that cause COVID-19 as well as the original SARS illness.

The antibody was identified by a team at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) and tested in animal models at UNC-Chapel Hill. Researchers published their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"This antibody has the potential to be therapeutic for the current epidemic," said co-senior author Barton Haynes, M.D., director of DHVI. "It could also be available for future outbreaks, if or when other coronaviruses jump from their natural animal hosts to humans."

Haynes and colleagues at DHVI isolated the antibody by analyzing the blood from a patient who had been infected with the original SARS-CoV-1 virus, which caused the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s, and from a current COVID-19 patient.