Dr. Ziv Shulman of the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science said that the blood of Coronavirus patients who have fully recovered from the disease contains a blueprint for building a molecule that may accelerate others’ recovery or possibly form the basis of a vaccine.

Some severely ill Coronavirus patients have already been treated on an experimental basis with the blood plasma of recovered patients, which is teeming with antibodies against the virus. But this method is unlikely to offer a large-scale method of treatment or prevention, as it depends on plasma donations from recovered patients, alone. In contrast, synthetic antibodies could be produced in large amounts by pharmaceutical companies and they are relatively safe.

Telltale signs

Together with Dr. Ron Diskin from the Department of Structural Biology, and clinicians, Dr. Shulman has obtained access to patients who have fully recovered from the Coronavirus. These patients have volunteered to let the scientists examine their blood for telltale signs of antibodies generated in response to the Coronavirus.

The Shulman team plans to use DNA sequencing and other techniques to clone the patient antibody-encoding genes and then reproduce them in the lab. This will allow them to identify the antibodies that are most effective in binding and neutralizing the viral proteins.

In addition, antibody injections might be used as a prophylactic treatment—a passive vaccine—that would protect medical staff from Coronavirus infection.