For their studies, they used a mini-"organ" of the human kidney (organoid), which was infected with the coronavirus. The modified protein was able to bind the S-spike of the coronavirus and prevent it from binding to the true cell membrane of the kidney cells, a prerequisite for the virus to enter the cells.

According to the researchers, led by Prof. Daniel Batlle, the development is intended for prevention against a SARS-Cov-2 infection or in cases where vaccination against Covid-19 has shown not to be sufficiently effective.

The work was published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Jan Wysocki, Minghao Ye, Luise Hassler, Ashwani Kumar Gupta, Yuguo Wang, Vlad Nicoleascu, Glenn Randall, Jason A. Wertheim, Daniel Batlle (2021). A Novel Soluble ACE2 Variant with Prolonged Duration of Action Neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Human Kidney Organoids. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 2021 Feb 1; ASN.2020101537. online ahead of print. https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/early/2021/01/29/ASN.2020101537

Source:
https://www.bionity.com/de/news/1169709/neues-protein-neutralisiert-covid-in-winziger-menschlicher-niere.html