New research has identified human antibodies that target the measles virus, which could help in the development of treatments for the virus, officials said on May 14.
“With measles cases increasing, we urgently need effective therapeutics to protect the most vulnerable,” Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger, acting director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institute of Health (NIH), said in a statement.
“This research gives us a clear picture for the first time of the most promising targets for antibody-based medicines that could protect or treat people for whom measles vaccination is not an option.”
The research, carried out by U.S. and Italian researchers with funding from NIH, pinpointed how and where human antibodies target and fight off measles virus by studying blood from a volunteer who had received a measles vaccine. They then tested the antibodies in experiments with rats.
The scientists found that the antibodies target nine different sites on the virus’s surface proteins, Hemagglutinin and Fusion, and that the most protective antibody targeted Fusion. Researchers had previously believed that protection against measles was mainly driven by antibodies targeting Hemagglutinin, according to the NIH.
The research was published by the journal Cell Host & Microbe earlier in May.
Measles cases have been increasing in many countries around the world in recent years. The United States in 2025 recorded the most cases since 1991.
The results provide a template for developing antibody-based products that prevent and treat measles, Erica Ollmann Saphire, president and CEO of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California, and co-authors said.
“These antibodies work as prophylaxis—to protect from initial infection—and they work after viral exposure as a treatment to fight measles infection,” Saphire, who has a Ph.D. in molecular biology, said in a statement. “It may be possible to give someone an infusion of these antibodies and deliver the immune response they wish they had.”
No measles-specific therapies currently exist.
The work is especially important considering some people, including young children and pregnant women, are advised not to receive a vaccine against measles, the scientists and NIH officials said.
“The scientists are now seeking partners to do the extensive research and testing needed to translate their discovery into a medicine that could serve as both a rapid post-exposure preventive and a therapeutic for people who are infected,” according to the NIH.
In addition to funding from the NIH, authors said they received financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. One of the authors listed being on the advisory board for the journal that published the work as a conflict of interest, and the authors also noted that the antibodies in question are in provisional patents.