Two independent teams have identified antibodies that can vanquish a deadly virus first reported in the Middle East.

Since it appeared in 2012, the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus has caused disease in at least 261 people and killed nearly 100 in Asia, North Africa and Europe as of 26 April, according to the World Health Organization. There are no vaccines or drugs for the virus.

Wayne Marasco at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and their team identified seven human antibodies that recognize different parts of a key MERS coronavirus protein and prevent it from recognizing and entering human cells in culture.

Another team, led by Linqi Zhang at Tsinghua University in Beijing, identified two more neutralizing antibodies. The molecules recognize different portions of the same MERS coronavirus protein and work together to block the virus's ability to infect cells.

If the antibodies prove to be safe and effective for human use, they could be administered to prevent or treat MERS coronavirus infections, both teams say.

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://doi.org/smr (2014); Sci. Transl. Med. 6, 234ra61 (2014)