Some folk don’t fancy having injection jabs. Whatever the reason, it’s real to them. Having a COVID-19 vaccination or booster can also present difficulties. We have to visit an approved site with facilities to keep the containers chilled down. A team of scientists at Rosalind Franklin Institute in Oxfordshire England are developing a COVID nose spray with assistance from a llama named Fifi.
What’s a Llama Got That Makes It Special?
A llama is a scaled down member of the camel family ranging wild across the South American plains. It’s a friendly, social animal some folk say makes a great pet too. Perhaps that’s because it can learn simple tasks after a few repetitions. But that’s not all there is to the Llama that originally appeared in North America around 40 million years ago.
Llamas and their close cousins, camels produce nanobodies in response to infections. Their nanobodies may be smaller, simpler versions of antibodies humans use to fight diseases, including COVID-19.
But Rosalind Franklin Institute scientists believe suitably primed llama nanobodies could be more effective than monoclonal antibodies at the heart of current COVID-19 vaccines. And they would be small enough to administer in a spray according to Bio Space website.
Fifi the Llama is Helping Make That COVID Nose Spray
A reporter from BBC News visited Rosalind Franklin Institute in Oxfordshire to monitor progress. There they learned coronavirus-infected rodents treated with a nanobody nose spray recovered fully within six days.
Fifi’s nanobodies potently latched onto, and bonded with the invading coronavirus. Then they sent a biological signal to the rodents’ immune system to join in the fray, and destroy the invaders.
This is not a proposal for a science fiction movie. The research is real, and it’s happening as we speak. The scientists stimulated Fifi’s immune system until it started making nanobodies. And then they purified the most potent ones in a sample of the llama’s blood. Their plan to make a human COVID nose spray is underway.
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Preview Image: Making a COVID Nose Spray
