Currently, there is no cure or vaccine that provides immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Scientists, however, are still on the hunt to find the best treatments for the disease, says anarticle.

Currently, the broad approaches that scientists are trying to study include antibodies, malaria drugs, and, of course, a vaccine.

Another approach being looked at by scientists is the harvesting of antibodies from the blood plasma of people who survived the illness.

However, this approach is a slow process, and there is no assurance that it can work. Also, there is a need to recruit former patients of the illness to donate plasma.

Then, the next step is to process that plasma and transform it to be used therapeutically.

According to one of the Netflix documentary 'Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak' researcher, Doctor Jacob Glanville, he believes that he had found a shortcut.

Doctor Glanville is the leader of Distributed Bio, a computational immune engineering organization that centers on creating antibody therapeutics and vaccines. For weeks, Glanville and his team had spent a lot of time on their laboratory to engineer a potential treatment for COVID-19.

On April 1, he announced through social media that their team had made a breakthrough.

He revealed that in the last nine weeks, his team had been working had to create an antibody therapy to neutralize and cure COVID-19 patients.

Antibodies are proteins produced by a person's immune system. It helps the body fight against intruders and pathogens, such as the novel coronavirus. It helps keep a person from getting sick.

According to Doctor Glanville, his team had engineered specific antibodies that are good at the task of blocking the deadly novel coronavirus.

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Answers from the Past

Doctor Glanville shared that to save time and get immediate results, he looked back at the antibodies that were proven to be effective at fighting the 2003 SARS virus.

According to Glanville, the 2003 SARS virus is related to the novel coronavirus. It is why his team studied the antibodies that bound SARS. The antibodies are known to have the ability to neutralize the SARS virus. This means that those antibodies will be useful medicine if the2003 SARS viruscame back, the doctor added.

Distributed Bio was able to locate five SARS antibodies successfully. Theseantibodieswere then modified to allow it to bind to receptors of the novel coronavirus.

According to Doctor Glanville, the 2003 SARS virus antibodies were capable of cross-neutralizing antibodies.

The concept used is that the modified antibodies can attach themselves to receptors of the novel coronavirus. This helps prevent the SARS-CoV-2 from invading and infecting healthy human cells.

The COVID-19 treatment that Doctor Glanville and his team are proposing is not a vaccine. According to a coronavirus expert Doctor Anthony Fauci, the discovery of Glanville and his team will become a "game-changer" for a virus that may make a return.

Doctor Glanville and his team's research is similar to the COVID-19 convalescent plasma, which is currently under testing status.

Tagsbioengineering, COVID-19 cure, COVID-19 Treatment, 2003 SARS Virus Antibodies

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Synthetic Antibodies: Bioengineering 2003 SARS Virus Antibodies to Provide Immunity to COVID-19 - Latin Post