SAB Biotherapeutics, South Dakota, will be testing a therapy using cow plasma in humans. How it’s possible?
- Pharmaceutical companies are still investigating antibodies to COVID-19 as a potential drug. SAB Biotherapeutics, which produces antibodies in the blood of genetically modified cows, joined the race
- The antibodies produced in this way are stronger than those produced in the human body
- The company wants to start clinical trials involving humans in the near future
Cows that produce antibodies to COVID-19
Genetically modified cows, and more specifically their blood, can contribute to the fight against COVID-19. Scientists at SAB Biotherapeutics used cows whose immune systems had been modified to resemble humans to produce antibodies against COVID-19. Plasma collected from cows, which contains antibodies to COVID-19, will be tested as one of the treatment options for this disease.
Eddie Sullivan, CEO of SAB Biotherapeutics, said in a statement to CNN that animals produce neutralizing antibodies that inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus under laboratory conditions. “We want to enter the clinical trial phase with the hope of delivering this potential COVID-19 drug to patients in need of treatment.”
The company has not said how many people will be studied in the clinical trials or how long the trials will take. Why were cows used in this experiment?
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Cows with a human immune system
SAB Biotherapeutics has “produced” several hundred genetically identical cows with a partially human immune system over the course of 20 years. Scientists introduced non-infectious fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus into the cows’ bloodstream, forcing their immune systems to produce human antibodies.
The company thus produced hundreds of doses of the drug, which was called SAB-185. SAB has not yet announced whether the drug will be tested only for the treatment of sick patients or also for disease prevention.
The principle of operation of the so-called passive antibody therapy is simple and involves delivering antibodies to the patient’s body from people who were also infected but who have fought the disease. Thanks to this, the sick person gets antibodies and their body can start fighting the disease. In the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection, doctors have doubts whether the so-called “Healer plasma” works at all, and does it really help you recover faster?
Why were cows used to produce human antibodies? The company’s representatives explain that cows have a much stronger immune response than humans, and repeated injections of virus fragments will make this response even stronger. The second argument in favor of cows is their size – they have more blood that can be used. They can “donate” plasma three times a month, not once, as is the case with humans.
According to SAB, the drug made from cow plasma has a neutralizing antibody level four times higher than the strongest antibodies in the human samples tested. The research was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh but was not published or reviewed in a scientific journal, but only made available by the company in a press release.
It is also worth noting that a few days ago, another company, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, announced that it had begun testing a researcher-prepared “antibody cocktail” against COVID-19.
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