Could Winter turn out to be our llama in shining armour?

Heroes and saviours of the universe tend to come in skin-tight outfits with capes, uniforms of some kind, or surgical masks and stethoscopes.

There’s a reason why the creators of Superman and Batman never thought to create ‘Llamaman’. Llamas don’t ‘go where no man has gone before’. They just kind of hang out and look goofy. And sometimes they spit.

But now it turns out that that these strange yet cuddly natives of South America could just be the saviour of us all.

“The solution to the coronavirus may have been staring us in the face this whole time, lazily chewing on a carrot. All we need, it seems, is llamas,” notes the London-based Guardian newspaper in an article published on Sunday, 17 May. The New York Times weighs in by suggesting that llamas could become “coronavirus heroes”.

Enter Winter, the chocolate-coloured llama from Belgium

The reason for all the unprecedented attention is that llamas might be an important figure in the fight against COVID-19. Or, more specifically, a four-year-old chocolate-coloured llama named Winter who lives in Belgium, a long way from her ancestral home in the Andes of Peru.

Her antibodies have already been found by researchers to be able to fight both the Sars and Mers respiratory viruses. The next step now is finding out if her antibodies can defeat the COVID-19 virus.

Early indicators are positive, but there is still a long way to go before scientists will know one way or another.

Llamas already have a reputation for healing

To any llama lovers, it would come as no surprise if the results prove to be successful and the long-eyelashed Miss Winter does indeed turn out to be a superhero.

“The animals have developed a reputation for healing. Llama antibodies have been a fixture in the fight against disease for years, with researchers investigating their potency against HIV and other viruses,” reports the Guardian.

Their secret is two types of antibodies to our one

Humans produce only one kind of antibody, explains the New York Times. Llamas, on the other hand, produce two types of antibodies. One of those antibodies is similar in size and constitution to human antibodies. But the other is much smaller; it’s only about 25% the size of human antibodies.

This more diminutive antibody can access tinier pockets and crevices on spike proteins – the proteins that allow viruses like the novel coronavirus to break into host cells and infect us – that human antibodies cannot. That can make it more effective in neutralising viruses.

“If it (the clinical trials) works, llama Winter deserves a statue,” Dr Xavier Saelens, a Ghent University virologist and study author, said.