Filenews 6 September 2020
Researchers in Costa Rica are to begin clinical trials of a cheap treatment against coronavirus, based on antibodies taken from horses, injected with the SARS-Cov-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease, according to scientists.
Prepared by the Clodomiro Picado Institute at the University of Costa Rica, horse antibody therapy is to be tested on 26 patients by mid-September, Roman Makaya, the president of the Social Security Fund, which manages public health centers, told Reuters.
Costa Rican authorities hope to be able to start implementing treatment more widely in hospitals if the results of the second phase of the study are encouraging. In Costa Rica hospitals 471 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 .
"We are proud to know that this product will save lives until the vaccine reaches the population. We do it with our own sources, without having to wait in line or compete with other countries, as seems to be the case with potential vaccines," said Alberto Alape, a coordinator of this research project at the Institute.
Similar efforts are also underway in Argentina and Brazil, while in Belgium scientists use llamas.
Researchers in Costa Rica argue that their method of treating COVID-19 is based on the experience of using horse antibodies to manufacture antiophical serums.
The researchers introduced the protein from China and the UK and injected it into six of the 110 horses that the Institute uses in the tests. Weeks later, when the animals developed several antibodies, they took blood from the horses and used the antibodies from the plasma as a raw material for the injectable serum.
If this method succeeds, researchers say they want to share this cheap treatment with other Central American states, most of which are poorer than Costa Rica.
Source: RES