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‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

ucsf.edu

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Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#11

Post by grenoire »

prepend wrote: post #6

“Llama inspired design” is quite amazing for being a conscious design choice. It does look like a llama, but is that a good thing? Are llamas in the UX toolkit as an animal that is both semi-exotic yet familiar enough to elicit positive reactions. I encountered a bunch on Peru trails and they were pretty ornery (compared to yaks or sheep) and the 30 or so different Quechua locals I talked with said they were pretty b…

I don't know if you read the sentence following that, but it's not about the apparatus itself:

"...inspired by nanobodies, antibody-like immune proteins that naturally occur in llamas, camels and related animals."

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#12

Post by hoseja »

prepend wrote: post #6

“Llama inspired design” is quite amazing for being a conscious design choice. It does look like a llama, but is that a good thing? Are llamas in the UX toolkit as an animal that is both semi-exotic yet familiar enough to elicit positive reactions. I encountered a bunch on Peru trails and they were pretty ornery (compared to yaks or sheep) and the 30 or so different Quechua locals I talked with said they were pretty b…

Huh? They are not talking about some sort of aesthetic design. Llamas' immune systems use these short protein antibodies, which seemingly proved useful when artificially modified to block the virus. Nothing to do with branding.

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#13

Post by jlengrand »

prepend wrote: post #6

“Llama inspired design” is quite amazing for being a conscious design choice. It does look like a llama, but is that a good thing? Are llamas in the UX toolkit as an animal that is both semi-exotic yet familiar enough to elicit positive reactions. I encountered a bunch on Peru trails and they were pretty ornery (compared to yaks or sheep) and the 30 or so different Quechua locals I talked with said they were pretty b…

Is that a joke? The whole article is about proteins that can be found in llamas, nothing else.

You did give me a good laugh though.

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#14

Post by Kwantuum »

fabian2k wrote: post #9

It's really annoying that press releases tend to overhype research so much. As far as I understand from skimming the paper, they created a synthetic antibody against the Spike protein of SARS-CoV2 that binds very tightly. There is no clinical data in the paper, they measured how tightly the nanobody they designed binds to the Spike protein and they did some neutralization assays against SARS-CoV2. The advantages of t…

Since you seem well informed: does the research mention anything about use as an aerosol and why that might be considered before internal use?

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#15

Post by fabian2k »

Kwantuum wrote: post #14
fabian2k wrote: post #9

It's really annoying that press releases tend to overhype research so much. As far as I understand from skimming the paper, they created a synthetic antibody against the Spike protein of SARS-CoV2 that binds very tightly. There is no clinical data in the paper, they measured how tightly the nanobody they designed binds to the Spike protein and they did some neutralization assays against SARS-CoV2. The advantages of t…

Since you seem well informed: does the research mention anything about use as an aerosol and why that might be considered before internal use?

They wrote that regular antibodies have to be given intravenuously. These nanobodies are smaller and more stable, so they argue that it is possible to use them as aerosol. The idea seems to be to use them as prevention, which would not be feasible if you have to inject them.

I can't really judge whether that approach makes sense, my experience is in the basic research area, not with clinical stuff.

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#16

Post by shadowgovt »

elil17 wrote: post #5
mc32 wrote: post #3

Looks interesting but so far only talks about using it as prophylactic via inhalation; however the virus is known to enter via mouth, eyes and anus as well (breaks in skin probably). Even so inhalation and touching to mouth are likely the most common vectors of infection, so seems promising.

It doesn’t have to be 100% effective for it to end the pandemic - it just has to be effective enough that it blocks most transmissions and gets the viruses reproduction rate under 1.

Well at the same time proving to not have any side effects, such as passage into the bloodstream followed by formation of molecules that the liver cannot break down and the kidneys cannot flush.

It's promising early research, but it's not even in laboratory animal trials yet.

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#17

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M »

dghughes wrote: post #8
mc32 wrote: post #3

Looks interesting but so far only talks about using it as prophylactic via inhalation; however the virus is known to enter via mouth, eyes and anus as well (breaks in skin probably). Even so inhalation and touching to mouth are likely the most common vectors of infection, so seems promising.

It isn't the same thing (I hope!) but it reminds me of McIntyre Powder. Miners were told by their company to use a fine aluminum/aluminium dust they breathed in before going to work in a mine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31532354/ "McIntyre Powder (MP) is a finely ground aluminum powder that was used between 1943 and 1979 as a prophylaxis for silicosis. Silicosis is a chronic lung disease caused by the inhalation…

...and in case you were wondering just how bad an idea this was, it's been conclusively linked to Parkinson's: https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2020/05/14/parkinsons-linked...

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#18

Post by Kwantuum »

fabian2k wrote: post #15
Kwantuum wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you seem well informed: does the research mention anything about use as an aerosol and why that might be considered before internal use?

They wrote that regular antibodies have to be given intravenuously. These nanobodies are smaller and more stable, so they argue that it is possible to use them as aerosol. The idea seems to be to use them as prevention, which would not be feasible if you have to inject them. I can't really judge whether that approach makes sense, my experience is in the basic research area, not with clinical stuff.

Right, but they do have the potential to also be used as treatment then? Considering they're easier to manufacture than synthetic antibodies.

Re: ‘AeroNabs’ – Inhalable Protection Against Covid-19

#20

Post by beervirus »

eigenvalue wrote: post #7

Won't this take too long to run human trials on for safety/efficacy for it to really matter? My understanding is that a vaccine will likely come out within 6 months or so. They mention that it's an older compound, but sounds like they made some novel changes to it. Since this situation is so much a race against time, we are probably better off focusing on older, better-understood compounds that don't need to be teste…

A vaccine would be great, but it’s far from certain we’ll have one in 6 months. It makes sense to keep pursuing multiple lines of research.
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