bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Dannie Peng

In the world of tick-borne illnesses, Lyme disease gets the headlines.
For example, Greg Yang, one of the 12 original co-founders of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI, said in late January that he was stepping back from the company after being diagnosed with the disease.
Accidentally eating the wrong food would leave him “extremely tired”, requiring days to recover, he said.
But there is a more dangerous condition transmitted by the ticks that a team at a Chinese university might now have a way to treat.
Researchers at Westlake University in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou say they have identified a “super antibody” that can efficiently neutralise Dabie bandavirus, a virus that causes severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or SFTS.
The discovery, they said, could “open up new avenues” for tackling the growing threat posed by ticks.
The syndrome has a mortality rate of up to 30 per cent and was first identified in 2009, during investigations into cases of a then unknown illness involving a sudden rise in body temperature.
During the acute phase of infection, patients with the syndrome can develop high levels of the virus in the blood, urine, faeces and other bodily fluids – including respiratory secretions and semen.
At present, there is no effective antiviral treatment or vaccine for SFTS, and medicine is largely limited to tackling symptoms. Critically ill patients often require intensive care, including plasma exchange therapy.
But the university said the super antibody the researchers found “holds great promise”.
It could just become “the first antibody-based therapeutic for humans against [the syndrome], and its cost will be lower than expensive intensive care unit treatment”.
The antibody’s binding efficiency to the virus was “tens of thousands of times” higher than that of previously reported antibodies and had also shown encouraging results in animal trials involving mice and rhesus monkeys, the university said.
The study – led by researchers from Westlake, Zhoushan Hospital in Zhejiang province, and other institutes – was published on January 25 in Vita, a new international journal co-founded by China’s Higher Education Press and the university.
In the search for the promising protein, the Hangzhou-based research team turned to blood samples from recovered patients.
Hangzhou is in Zhejiang province near the Zhoushan archipelago, a group of more than 400 islands that is a hotspot for SFTS infections.
Ticks in the region are known to carry viral strains associated with higher fatality rates.
The researchers collected blood samples from recovered patients and after screening tens of thousands of antibody candidates, eventually identified a highly potent antibody that they named ZS1C5.
Structural biology analyses showed that the antibody has an exceptionally rare, ultra-long “arm” that clamps onto two critical sites on the virus. This prevents the virus from attaching to human cells and undergoing the structural changes needed to penetrate them.
In mouse models, a single dose of ZS1C5 resulted in a 100 per cent survival rate, even after exposure to 10 times the lethal viral dose. The treatment remained effective when administered up to 48 hours after infection.
In primate trials, viral loads in treated monkeys fell by 90 per cent within 24 hours. After three days of treatment, the virus was no longer detectable in serum. Platelet levels remained stable, and no excessive immune responses were observed.
The team next plans to develop a vaccine incorporating key viral information to stimulate the immune system to produce the antibody they identified.
While tick bites are the main route of infection, the virus can also be transmitted between species and through human-to-human contact.
Unlike Lyme disease, which is more prevalent in North America and Europe, human cases of the syndrome have mainly been recorded in East Asia, including China, Japan and South Korea, with sporadic reports from other Asian countries.
However, a commentary published in The Lancet in November warned of multiple transmission routes beyond tick bites – which, combined with an expanding geographical footprint, could increase the threat of the virus.
The article said human-induced climate change was contributing to the expansion of tick habitats.
Haemaphysalis longicornis, the Asian long-horned hard tick – considered the main reservoir host and vector of the virus – has now been detected in regions including the United States, Australia and New Zealand, aided by migratory birds carrying infected parasites.


Can this ‘super antibody’ overpower SFTS, a deadly tick-borne disease?

Lighter, simpler, faster: could this thrust device give Chinese drones an edge over F-35s?

How a deadly tumour cell protein could help fight Alzheimer’s disease: Chinese researchers

How old is Chinese civilisation? It really dates back 8,000 years, an archaeologist argues

Science

Ticks can be vectors for a number of illnesses.
Photo: Shutterstock

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behaviour. Photo: Shutterstock

Nipah virus outbreak in India sparks worry in China before Lunar New Year

Healthcare workers in the southern Indian state of Kerala wear protective gear as they attend to a man with symptoms of the Nipah virus in September 2023. Photo AFP

Thai health officials conduct screenings for the Nipah virus at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: EPA via Handout

Asthma has no cure. For some, the risk is in this gene, Chinese team finds

Scientist Yin Jianhua says a Chinese team’s research shows that asthma is closely related to the immune system, suggesting that immune-related treatments could be a viable option for therapy. Photo: Shutterstock

News

China

Researchers in China say the protein could be a way to tackle a growing parasitic threat


Researchers in China say the protein could be a way to tackle a growing parasitic threat.


Westlake University

Can this ‘super antibody’ overpower SFTS, a deadly tick-borne disease?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Researchers in China say the protein could be a way to tackle a growing parasitic threat

Researchers in China say the protein could be a way to tackle a growing parasitic threat