In what is being said to be a potential breakthrough in the treatment of the novel coronavirus, an antibody from a patient, who made a recovery from SARS, has been shown to block the COVID-19 infection in a laboratory setting. Scientists from Switzerland and the United States had isolated antibodies from a patient back in 2003, following the SARS outbreak, which led to 774 people losing their lives.

Scientists have now experimented with 25 different antibody types, which attack specific protein spikes on viruses, in order to see if they can put a stop to cells getting infected by COVID-19. It is said that the structures of SARS and the pathogen that causes the novel coronavirus are similar since they both are thought to have come from animals. Eight antibodies have now been singled out by researchers that could be associated to both coronavirus and the infected cells.

A candidate being called as S309 had displayed "particularly strong neutralising activity" against the COVID-19 infection.This was achieved when other less potent antibodies were combined with S309, which allowed for the different sites on the virus' protein spikes to be attacked, reducing its ability to mutate any further. Up until now, hundreds of trials for an effective treatment for coronavirus have been ongoing including some that involve the use of antibodies being taken from patients who recovered from the infection.

Although no experiments on humans were in the study, published in the journal Nature, authors have stated that there is "proof of concept" that antibodies from SARS can shut out COVID-19 infection as well as stop its spread. They wrote in their report saying, "These results pave the way for using S309- and S309-containing antibody cocktails for prophylaxis in individuals at high risk of exposure or as a post-exposure therapy to limit or treat severe disease,".