Israel Isolates Coronavirus Antibody in 'Significant Breakthrough': Minister

Israel has isolated a key coronavirus antibody in its main biological research laboratory, the Israeli Defense Minister said on Monday, calling the move a "significant breakthrough" in the possible cure for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The "monoclonal neutralising antibody" developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) "can neutralise it (the disease-causing coronavirus) inside carriers' bodies," Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement.

The statement added that Bennett visited the IIBR on Monday where he was briefed "on a significant breakthrough in finding an antidote for the coronavirus".

It quoted the Director of the IIBR, Shmuel Shapira, as stating that the antibody formula was patented, in which an international manufacturer will be required to mass-produce it.

The IIBR has led Israel's attempts to improve coronavirus treatment and vaccination, including blood tests of those that have healed from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.

Antibodies in such samples - immune-system proteins that are residues of successfully overcoming the coronavirus - are widely seen as a key to developing a possible cure.

The antibody reported as having been isolated at the IIBR is monoclonal, meaning it was derived from a single recovered cell and is thus potentially of more potent value in yielding a treatment.

In addition, coronavirus treatments developed from polyclonal antibodies or generated from two or more cells with different origins have been reported by Science Direct in its May issue.

Israel was one of the first countries to shut its borders and place ever-increasing controls on travel to prevent domestic coronavirus outbreaks. There were 16,246 reports and 235 fatalities related to illness.

Source: Reuters