Netflix's 'Pandemic' doctor says he's found potential cure for coronavirus using antibodies that killed SARS virus
You may have seen Dr Jacob Glanville on Netflix's documentary show 'Pandemic'. He is back in the spotlight after developing a potential treatment for COVID-19.
On March 30, Dr Glanville, who runs a San Francisco- based therapeutic company named Centivax, announced that his team has developed ultra-potent antibodies capable of fighting the new coronavirus.
Dr Glanville took to Twitter to talk about the development. He said "after 9 weeks, we have generated extremely potent antibodies that block the novel coronavirus from infecting human cells."
The group has introduced changes to antibodies that already work against SARS, a close relative of the new coronavirus. "I'm happy to report that my team has successfully taken five antibodies that back in 2002 were determined to bind and neutralize, block and stop the SARS virus," Dr Glanville told Radio New Zealand.
To create changes to the SARS antibodies, the team introduced mutations. "The new virus is a cousin of the old SARS. So what we have done is we have created hundreds of millions of versions of those antibodies, we have mutated them a bit," he added.
Some of these mutated versions of the antibodies acted against the new coronavirus. This means the team created antibodies that can block the entry of the virus into human cells.
In addition to treating sick patients, the antibodies can protect people from falling sick, he explained. "Part of the reason we think we're moving pretty fast is that instead of starting from scratch discovering an antibody, we went to these existing antibodies that were already extremely well-characterized against SARS. And we have adapted them. So we're piggybacking on two years of research," he said.
He called his treatment a short-term vaccine. "A vaccine could take six to eight weeks to take effect, whereas this will take effect within 20 minutes. You could give it to a patient who's sick, experiencing COVID-19, then within 20 minutes of receiving the shot, their body is flooded with those antibodies." "Those antibodies will surround and stick all over a virus and make it so it's no longer infectious," he added.
The only downside to using antibodies, according to Dr Glanville, is that antibodies give short-term protection of 8 to 10 weeks. Vaccines, on the other hand, can shield people for a year or more.
The team will now send the antibodies to the military. "The other nice thing about it is you want the stamp of approval of a government military to independently test your work. This is one of the foundations of good science," he said.
Another lab will test whether the drug is safe for human use. If it proves safe, he intends to produce them in bulk. This could take months, he said. Next, the drug will go to human trials. All of this could take time. "So we have worked with two different partners to try to accelerate that to take a few months but that does take time and there's no way around," he added.