A biotechnology company is using cattle to study COVID-19 and the antibodies needed to fight the disease. SAb Biotherapeutics of Sioux Falls, SD, has genetically-modified cattle to produce human antibodies that subdue the disease-causing pathogen, SARS-CoV-2.
Clinical trials are expected to take place this summer, according to Science, a peer-reviewed journal. In the experiment, dairy cows are altered for certain immune cells to carry DNA that allows humans to produce antibodies. The cattle then produce large quantities of the antibodies to fight a pathogen injected into them.
“Essentially, the cows are used as a giant bioreactor,” said Viral Immunologist William Klimstra of the University of Pittsburgh, who has been measuring the antibodies’ potency against the pathogen.
Cattle make good subjects for an experiment such as this, because their blood can contain twice as many antibodies per milliliter compared to human blood. Cattle also produce different varieties of antibodies, which can recognize different parts of a virus and fight it off stronger.
Each month, a single cow could yield enough antibodies to treat several hundred patients, said Eddie Sullivan, SAb Biotherapeutics’s president and CEO. So far, no antibodies generated by the cattle have been approved for treating any disease.
