Llamas are being used in research to produce antibodies that may help develop therapeutics to treat and prevent COVID-19 in humans. Like humans, llamas naturally produce antibodies. Antibodies are special proteins that are made from plasma cells (a type of white blood cell), and they help the body to fight "antigens" including viruses, bacteria, and other threats that can make people sick.

Llamas are able to produce a special type of antibody called a 'nanobody.' Nanobodies are about a quarter of the size of the antibodies that humans produce and, because they are so small, nanobodies are more stable, can live for a long time, and are able reach tiny, hard-to-reach areas of the body to help treat infected cells. Using a known process, scientists are looking to create a treatment for COVID-19 using llama nanobodies. Though animal studies have only just begun and researchers are not yet ready for human studies, there is hope that COVID-19 antibody treatments made possible by llamas could become preventive in the future.

News headlines have mentioned llamas participating in research with the potential to help treat and prevent COVID-19. Animals ranging from llamas to sharks have been used to help produce antibodies similar to those used by human immune systems. Camelids, including llamas, camels, and alpacas, are particularly effective at antibody production and make simpler and smaller "single-domain" antibodies that are called nanobodies. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, special features of nanobodies include stability for storage of therapeutics and the potential for delivery through an inhaler directly to the lungs, which may be beneficial for respiratory diseases like COVID-19. There is widespread interest in antibodies against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, for use in helping infected patients recover and protecting more people from getting sick.

In 2016, researchers from the University of Texas worked with a Belgian research team to study the effect of an injection of a type of coronavirus in a 4-year-old llama named Winter. Though the virus was similar to COVID-19, it was not exactly the same. In this early study, the virus that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was used. The goal of this injection was to see if Winter's body might produce nanobodies in response to exposure to this coronavirus. Luckily, Winter produced two antibodies: one that fought off MERS and the other that fought off SARS. The scientists further studied the antibodies in a lab and were eventually able to use them to produce nanobodies, which might help prevent SARS and MERS viruses once they enter a body's cells. The current research into llamas to treat COVID-19 stems from this process.