Israel claims a “significant breakthrough” towards a treatment for Covid-19 after isolating a key coronavirus antibody at its main biological research laboratory, the defence minister said on Monday night.
Israel is one of dozens of countries racing to find a cure or a vaccine for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that emerged in China in December.
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. It added that Mr Bennett visited the IIBR on Monday where he was briefed "on a significant breakthrough in finding an antidote for the coronavirus".
Coronavirus around the Middle East
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Iraqi soldiers guard a street, enforcing a curfew imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, during the month of Ramadan, in Baghdad, Iraq. Reuters -
A boy dives as youths cool off by the water at a beach off the Mediterranean coast of Libya's capital Tripoli, despite a lockdown against coronavirus pandemic. AFP -
Kuwaiti nationals arrive at the Kuwait International Airport, south of the capital Kuwait City, after a repatriation plan for citizens stranded abroad was put together by the authorities, during the novel coronavirus crisis. AFP -
Employees work at the Saudi National Health Emergency Operations Centre in capital Riyadh, during the novel coronavirus pandemic crisis. AFP -
An employee works at the Saudi National Health Emergency Operations Centre in Riyadh, during the novel coronavirus crisis. AFP -
People walk and exercise at Beirut's seaside promenade, along the Mediterranean Sea amid the coronavirus pandemic in Beirut, Lebanon. Taking advantage of warm spring weather, people who have been under lockdown for weeks headed to the corniche a day before the government eased coronavirus restrictions on Monday. AP Photo -
A man welcomes his friend after weeks of a national lockdown in Lebanon to curb the spread of the coronavirus as he plays paddleball at Beirut's seaside promenade, along the Mediterranean Sea. AP Photo -
Men ride horses in the Mediterranean Sea waters near the port of Libya's capital Tripoli, as they cool off in the hot weather despite a lockdown to tackle coronavirus pandemic. AFP -
An Iraqi woman wearing a protective face mask, drives past a checkpoint amid the coronavirus, during the month of Ramadan, in Baghdad, Iraq. Reuters -
People gather near trucks after the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran partially reopened for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus, at the border in Iraq's Halabja Province. Reuters -
Sanitary workers prepare to perform a fumigation in an area in Yemen's southern coastal city of Aden, as part of a campaign to prevent insect-borne diseases amid the Covid-19 pandemic. AFP -
A sanitary worker performs a fumigation in an area in Yemen's southern coastal city of Aden as part of a campaign to prevent insect-borne diseases amid the coronavirus pandemic. AFP
It quoted IIBR Director Shmuel Shapira as saying that the antibody formula was being patented, after which an international manufacturer would be sought to mass-produce it.
The IIBR has been leading Israeli efforts to develop a treatment and vaccine for the coronavirus, including the testing of blood from those who recovered 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.
Elsewhere, there have been coronavirus treatments developed from antibodies that are polyclonal, or derived from two or more cells of different ancestry, the magazine Science Direct reported in its May issue.
Israel was one of the first countries to close its borders and impose increasingly stringent restrictions on movement to hamper the domestic coronavirus outbreak. It has reported 16,246 cases and 235 deaths from the illness.
