Science bit: Llama nanobodies

Human noroviruses cause acute gastroenteritis, a global health problem for which there are no vaccines or antiviral drugs. Although most healthy patients recover completely from the infection, norovirus can be life-threatening in infants, the elderly and people with underlying diseases. Estimates indicate that human noroviruses cause approximately 684 million illnesses and 212,000 deaths annually.

Llamas

Noroviruses also are notorious for periodically giving rise to new variants, particularly those of GII.4 norovirus, that can evade the immune response the body has developed against previous variants, like some flu viruses and coronaviruses do. The diversity of norovirus groups and the recurring emergence of new variants are some of the factors challenging the development of effective preventive and therapeutic approaches to control this serious disease.

In the current study published in the journal Nature Communications, Salmen, Prasad and their colleagues investigated a novel strategy to neutralize human noroviruses. They tested whether tiny antibodies produced by llamas, called nanobodies, could effectively neutralize human norovirus infection in the lab. The unexpected findings reveal that nanobodies could be developed as a therapeutic agent against human norovirus.

Boris Johnson, the pet llama

For context, human antibodies are large proteins consisting of several protein chains linked together. The Llama nanobody (Nb in the figure below) is a part of the bigger typical antibody found in llamas and other camelids (camels, alpaca, guanaco, etc.). The red tips are areas that bind to foreign agents including bacteria, fungi and viruses.


The Nb fragment is believed to work on norovirus in the raised configuration:





Because this is a report about pre-clinical research, it will be years before any nanobody anti-norovirus drug might come on the market. It will have to be shown to be safe and effective in human clinical trials. Years of clinical trials will be needed before this can be approved and then sold on commercial markets.

Guanaco in dust bath mode



By Germaine: Human non-hydrophobe nanobody (Germaine is on the right)

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