Chinese team's breakthrough may help fight deadly Mers virus
Hong Kong and mainland scientists have identified two antibodies that could be "promising candidates" to help develop a treatment for Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).
Hong Kong and mainland scientists have identified two antibodies that could be "promising candidates" to help develop a treatment for Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The team, led by Tsinghua University researchers, is turning its experience from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak of 2003 to the new virus, which some fear could mutate and become even more deadly - although any cure for Mers remains years away.
Their research has found two antibodies - proteins produced by the immune system to identify and neutralise foreign objects - which bind effectively with the Mers virus and prevent it from entering host cells, cutting off the infection process.
The Mers virus may ... one day become as transmissible as the Sars coronavirus
Team member Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong, said the results were promising at a time when the virus appeared to be spreading fast, with cases increasing since the middle of last month.
More than 300 cases of Mers - a coronavirus with similarities to Sars - have been diagnosed since it was identified two years ago, and 40 per cent have been fatal.
About 75 per cent of cases are from human-to-human transmission.
Scientists believe the virus may have spread from bats to humans via camels - much as Sars is thought to have spread to humans through civet cats.