Costa Rica Will Use Equine Antibodies for Covid-19 Treatment

The Clodomiro Picado Institute, responsible for developing curative treatment against Covid-19 in Costa Rica is now working on the preparation of a serum with antibodies against Covid-19 from the immune system of horses.

Non-infectious Coronavirus proteins will be used to immunize horses, which do not adversely affect the health of horses.

The virus proteins are inoculated in horses, these have the particularity of not being pathogenic, since they do not replicate in the host’s organism.

Horse antibodies will be used in sick patients

“We are not going to use the complete virus. What does this mean? That there is no risk of horses becoming infected. What we are going to use are some of the proteins of the virus. When the procedure is done, the horse’s body will recognize these proteins and generate the antibodies. Later, these antibodies will be used in sick patients ”, explained Mauricio Arguedas, the veterinary doctor.

After this process, the scientists will extract the blood from the animal and process it to separate these antibodies generated in the animal and use them in people who are still sick with Covid-19.

Then, it is calculated that the result of the immunization will be taken within four months from the start of the inoculation, which is the moment in which the proteins are injected into the animal.

Equine antibodies have several advantages over human antibodies

“With the medicine based on equine antibodies, several advantages will be obtained and the first is not to depend on human donors. Similarly, we believe that equine antibodies may have a better virus-neutralizing potency than the potency of human antibodies. This is because the horses will be hyperimmunized; that is, they are injected with protein several times. The stimulation of the immune system in theory should be greater, but this must be confirmed,” added Arguedas.

Another point to note is the greater volume of plasma that can be extracted from a horse, compared to that which can be obtained from a human being.

With the plasma obtained from a single horse, 100 vials of the medicine can be prepared, while with the plasma from a single person, only two can be prepared.

Six healthy horses were donated to the research institute

A donation of horses is what the Clodomiro Picado Institute received, to carry out one of the possible ways that the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) leads for the preparation of an anti-Coronavirus serum.

Six equines are already ready by the Clodomiro Picado Institute, which were evaluated through physical check-ups and blood tests to ensure their overall well-being.

In addition, they are being provided with a diversity of care; among them, an excellent quality diet based on hay, concentrate and grass.

This process is similar to what is done with antivenoms by the research institute, which are horse antibodies that act against specific snake poisons. Another treatment that is managed against Coronavirus is the use of plasma from recovered patients.

The fact that Costa Rica takes this step is very important for the fight against coronavirus, since we are facing a disease that does not have a specific preventive or curative treatment.

Costa Rica’s response to the crisis has been praised internationally by several media outlets. In addition to using horses to aid in treatment against Covid-19 and developing curative treatment by using plasma from recovered patients, Costa Rica has also:

• Developed their own Covid-19 screening tests
• Manufactured their own artificial respirators for Covid-19 patients