Source : ACS Infect. Dis.
We’ve been hearing a lot about nanobodies, mainly for use in treating coronavirus. In May 2021, researchers developed a new nanobody-based inhalable treatment that could prevent & treat the COVID19 coronavirus through ultra-low doses. Although treatment was still in a very early preclinical phase, it offered the hope that scientists could fundamentally change the way we avoid radical viruses at a social level.
Then, in August 2021, researchers conceived new nanobodies that could block coronavirus infection & lock spikes into a in-active state. For the uninitiated, the coronavirus associated with the cause of COVID19 enters human host cells using its Spike protein and a host cell receptor. New synthetic nanobodies would disrupt this process..
Now researchers work on Nanobody’s tests to detect all known species and even unknown Ebola virus, according to c&en. They designed single-domain antibodies, called nanobodies, to use against 5 species of Ebola, then used the same antibodies to detect a previously unknown 6th species.
“This approach of trying to find conserved antibodies that cross a variety of different species has a lot of utility,” said c&en Daniel Bausch, director of emerging threats and global health security at the nonprofit Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics. , who was not involved in study.
The research team used lamas to create these nanobodies. If this sounds familiar, that’s because a llama-based antibody cocktail has already been used to neutralize COVID19 virus.
In this case, the scientists injected a pair of llamas with proteins from all 5 known Ebola viruses. They then isolated & sequenced the antibodies the animals produced in response to this action.
The study allowed scientists to identify the 2 Nanobodies, which would be strongly associated with the 5 nucleoproteins that would lead to the development of Nanobodies, which can recognize all types of Ebola virus. The next step in this sophisticated process would now be to test whether the nanobodies could be further developed to produce antiviral therapeutics in addition to diagnostics.
