Vital Brazil, UFRJ test serum to treat COVID-19

Scientists from Instituto Vital Brazil and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) are studying a hyperimmune serum which may treat COVID-19. This medication is of the same type as the ones used against rabies and against animal venom.

The serum is produced from horse blood plasma. In the case of anti-venom serums, horse blood produces defense agents against the toxin inoculated in the body. The serum is produced out of this blood with antibodies.

The same process is used in serum against rabies, administered on people who may have had contact with the virus, which bars the virus from manifesting itself in the body of the individual infected.

In the study against the new coronavirus, UFRJ will isolate and inactivate the virus, so that it can start being inoculated in the horses of Instituto Vital Brazil. The testing begins next Wednesday (May 7).

“We have seen in a number of studied conducted across the world that the treatment with the plasma of people cured from COVID019 had a positive impact in the treatment of infected patients with a severe state. The idea is to make an experiment now using horse plasma, so that it may be produced on large scale,” said institute head Adilson Stolet.

If the outcome proves promising, the serum may be tested on humans in four months’ time. In six months, it could be possible to produce the serum on large scale. The capacity of the institute is to produce up to 100 thousand treatments a year.

Another Vital Brazil study looks into the antibodies and DNA of llamas. With the two studies, one can choose the process quicker in yielding results.