Stacey Efstathiou

Llamas, new research has revealed, may be harbouring an immune trick that is a potent therapy for Covid-19... Despite a huge global effort, an effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 is not expected for months. For this reason considerable effort is being focused on the development of potent antibody-based therapies that can be administered to people at the earliest stages of infection with the aim of neutralising virus infectivity.

Clinical trials are now underway on a novel vaccine against COVID-19 developed by scientists at Oxford University. The vaccine has been developed at a rapid pace but the signs are looking good that it may prove effective in humans. The new vaccine has been developed at the Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research at the University of Oxford. Dubbed ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, at its core is a chimpanzee adenovirus called ChAdOx1. This has been modified to remove an essential viral gene called E1.

Antibodies can aid coronavirus infections, a new study has shown. The results have implications for the safety of a Covid-19 vaccine… Vaccination works by educating the immune system to recognise threats it may encounter in the future. One of the first lines of defence is the production of protective antibodies. These are protein molecules shaped like the letter Y, the arms of which are “sticky”.