A Stampede to Mitigate COVID-19
80 Nations, 95,419 Infected, 50,000,000 Quarantined and 3,285 Deaths
The Chinese government quarantined 50 million people in the Hubei province including Wuhan and its nearby cities. Chinese officials reported that two thirds of the people who died from COVID-19 were men over 60 years old with health conditions like Diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-coronavirus.
Let’s face it, with these occurrences, it’s inevitable that the world is being hit with COVID-19. What is COVID 19? In short, because of its similarity or a variant to SARs the Center for Disease Control (CDC) termed it SAR-CoV-2 which means Co for Corona, V for Virus, D for Disease and 19 for 2019 thus, COVID-19. According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 is from a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to a more severe disease such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Therefore, COVID-19 is novel and a new strain that has not yet been previously identified in humans. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
COVID-19 is supposedly zoonotic which is transmissible between animals and humans. Past investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from cats (Civet) to humans and MERS-CoV from Dromedary camels to humans.
A Civet is a small, broad cat-like, lean, mostly nocturnal mammal that are native to tropical Asia and Africa. Similar to an otter or a mongoose, they weigh about three to 10 pounds and 17 to 28 inches long. The Africian Civet was historically, used for its musky scent in perfumery. Civets produces a musk which is highly valued as a fragrance and stabilizing agent for perfume. Both the male and female Civets produce the strong-smelling secretion, which comes from the perineal glands. It is harvested in two ways: either by killing the animal and removing the glands, or by scraping the secretions from the glands of a live animal. The latter is the preferred method today however, less so since the World Animal Protection made a stand. The practice of raising Civets for musk is dying out and synthetic substitutes are being used.
However, in 2002–2003 Civets meat were sold in local markets of China’s Yunnan Province. This began the carrying of the SARS Virus. 26 countries were affected and over 8,000 people were sick and 774 died. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/01/29/coronavirus-spread-why-point-the-finger-at-bats/
Ten years later, bats were the source of MERS, which first appeared in Saudi Arabia and then spread to 27 countries infecting 2,260 people and killing 803. Bats carried the virus to Dromedary camels which are Arabian camels with one hump on its back. There are several coronaviruses that are circulating in animals but have not yet infected humans. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/01/29/coronavirus-spread-why-point-the-finger-at-bats/
Bats carry over 200 viruses and researchers have looked into why bats don’t appear to get sick from all their viruses. The latest research found a gene mutation in their immune system that lets them coexist with many disease-causing viruses.
Research
An international research team from Germany (Medical Center — University of Freiburg and Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, island of Riems) and the United States (Colorado State University, Fort Collins and Kansas State University, Manhattan) addressed concerns about the zoonotic spill-over potential and discovered an unexpected high genetic plasticity of the bat influenza virus H18N11 with unpredictable consequences. Bat-borne influenza viruses enter host cells by utilizing surface exposed MHC-II molecules of various species, including humans. https://phys.org/news/2019-09-influenza-viruses-unexpected-genetic-plasticity.html.
MHC is the major histocompatibility complex, a set of genes that code for cell surface proteins essential for the acquired immune system to recognize foreign molecules in vertebrates, which in turn determines histocompatibility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_histocompatibility_complex
Bats also carry the deadly Ebola virus and are a reservoir for influenza viruses. These newly discovered flu viruses are attacking the cells of humans and livestock. Researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) have now seen that seasonal outbreaks of the flu are caused by influenza viruses that can only infect people. However, Influenza types that circulate in birds or pigs are normally not a threat to humans. However with the zoonotic transmission from bats to humans this can lead to a global influenza pandemic with numerous serious illnesses and deaths.
It is known that influenza viruses bind to host cells via sialic acids. These groups of chemicals can be found on the surface of almost all human cells and in many types of animals. This is the major reason why influenza viruses can infect species that are very different from one another, such as ducks, chickens, pigs and humans. But, unlike these viruses, the bat influenza viruses don’t bind to sialic acids, and have led researchers all over the world to search for the receptor through which they enter human cells. The entry gate is MHC-II Molecules.
The protein complexes are normally located on the surface of certain immune cells, and their role is to distinguish between the body’s own cells and structures and those that are foreign. “The influenza viruses use MHC-II molecules to enter the host cell,” says Stertz, a researcher at the University of Zurich (UZH). “What surprised us is that bat influenza viruses cannot only use the MHC-II complexes of human cells, but also those of chickens, pigs, mice and several bat species,” explains UZH Ph.D. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-02-influenza-viruses-infect-humans.html
The Outbreak of COVID-19
The first signs of the current outbreak came on December 29th, 2019 in Eastern China, Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, when four workers at a large and sprawling Wuhan, food market were admitted to a hospital with pneumonia, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. When health officials took specimens from the market, they found evidence of the virus in 33 out of 585 samples taken from people at the market and the stalls where meats were sold.
The most common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, breathing difficulties, fever, cough and shortness of breath. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, sever acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death. Washing hands, covering mouths and noses, cooking meats and eggs thoroughly, and just plain avoiding contact with anyone showing symptoms of coughing is clearly not enough.
The Vaccine Stampede
The conventional method of egg-based vaccine is time consuming and has a limited capacity. Therefore, why is there not a Novel Influenza Vaccine that can be rapidly produced should a pandemic situation arise? First let’s look at what a Novel Influenza Vaccine is. The American Association of Immunologists and the Journal of Immunology conducted a study that “DNA Vaccine that targets Hemagglutinin to MHC Class II Molecules rapidly induces antibody-mediated protection against influenza”. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767367/. Hemagglutinin (HA) is a complex three step process where essentially, red blood cells (RBCs) agglutinate or clump together on the surface of a virus. https://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/hemagglutinin.
“The main antigenic determinants of influenza A viruses are the Hemagglutinin (HA) and the neuraminidase (NA) genes. Based on the antigenicity of these membrane associated glycoproteins, sixteen HA (H1–H16) and nine NA (N1–N9) subtypes haven’t been described until now. Antigenic alterations occur frequently in influenza HA and NA antigenic sites and are the mechanism for virus adaptation to the host and survival.” Dr. Esther Michael — Biological Safety Office: 640–9966 Tel Aviv University https://safety.tau.ac.il/sites/safety.tau.ac.il/files/media_server/safety/SOP%20for%20PR8%20influenza%20A%20%20in%20animals.pdf
Viral Hemagglutinins enable viruses to bind to host cells. The study found that Targeting of HA to MHC II molecules induces complete protection against influenza. Mice that were vaccinated with anti–MHC II–HA maintained their weight and showed no signs of disease. Analysis of viral loads in nasal washes showed that mice immunized with anti–MHC II–HA had cleared the virus infection by day 4 and completely so by day 6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767367/. The study indicated that Targeted DNA HA vaccines can be produced and employed within weeks.
In the spring of 2009, the H1N1 Mexican swine flu emerged as a pandemic threat. This outbreak helped to test how rapid a MHC II–targeted vaccine for this virus could be established. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767367/. It was concluded that tailored vaccines can be generated and tested in a model system within weeks of an influenza outbreak. The study also found that the targeted DNA vaccine strategy had worked previously for two different H1 strains of the influenza virus (PR8 — Puerto Rico 8, Strain A 1934 H1N1 and Cal07 — California Strain A — 2007–2009 H1N1).
The H1N1 2009 Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 was known as the Spanish Flu or the 1918 influenza pandemic which infected 500 million people around the world. The death toll estimated to have been between 40 to 50 million and possibly as high as 100 million people). It was one of the deadliest epidemics in human history.
The Race against Time
Many companies are working on a vaccine for COVID-19 since the virus’s genetic sequence was made available on January 10th 2020, online. Three of these groups that are funded by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a nonprofit formed in 2017 to fund vaccine development for emerging infectious diseases are:
1) Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. Pennsylvania-based, Chief Executive Dr. J. Joseph Kim told the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House on Monday, March 2nd that they have developed a vaccine by the name of INO-4800, which will be ready in April to be tested to the public. Kim said in a statement. “We plan to begin human clinical trials in the U.S. in April and soon thereafter in China and South Korea, where the outbreak is impacting the most people.” https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-long-will-it-take-to-develop-vaccine-for-coronavirus
i) Inovio is expecting to deliver 1 million doses of vaccine by year-end, using its existing resources, but will need additional resources to scale up to provide further amounts.
ii) The company has finalized the designs for human clinical trials and has developed large-scale manufacturing plans. It is planning to launch trials in the U.S. in 30 healthy volunteers and expects to publish the first results by fall. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-long-will-it-take-to-develop-vaccine-for-coronavirus
2) Moderna, Inc. is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that is focused on drug discovery and drug development based on messenger RNA (mRNA). The company creates synthetic mRNA that can be injected into patients to help them create their own therapies. It was based on basic science work, whose lab developed a method for modifying mRNA, transfecting into human cells, and dedifferentiating them into stem cells, and then causing them to differentiate into desired cell types. Moderna was founded in 2010 by Derrick Rossi at Harvard who approached fellow Harvard faculty member Tim Springer. They originally named the company “ModeRNA”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderna.
i) In January 2020, Moderna partnered with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Moderna indicated that they could have a vaccine ready for a phase one clinical trial in people in three months.
ii) On Feb. 24 Moderna said that its coronavirus vaccine mRNA-1273 was ready for human clinical trials. The biotech stated then, that vials of the vaccine had already been shipped to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for use in a U.S. phase 1 clinical study.
3) Novavax, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland with additional facilities in Rockville, Maryland and Uppsala, Sweden. Novavax is dedicated to developing novel vaccines to address infectious disease and has received an $89 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support their work.
i) In Jan 2020, Novavax was granted Fast Track Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for NanoFlu. The company positions NanoFlu for the urgent unmet medical need for a more effective vaccine against influenza. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novavax
ii) On February 26th, two days after Moderna, Novavax announced that it plans to begin a phase 1 clinical study evaluating a nanoparticle-based COVID-19 vaccine in the spring of 2020.
CoughSync — A Non-Invasive Solution by Israel
Dr. Eliezer Be’eri from the ALYN hospital in Jerusalem claims that his device named “CoughSync” a completely noninvasive method of clearing secretion from one’s airways and reproduces normal physiology is only months away. ALYN, the Association for the Care of Disabled Children, three years ago, launched an innovation center to create new devices to help people with disabilities.
Be’eri explained, “If you have someone on a ventilator, the standard way to remove secretions from their airway is that a nurse disconnects the patient from the ventilator and puts a catheter in its place to suction up the secretions. What happens when you cough? You take a deep breath of air and rapidly expel the air, which clears the secretions, because the airflow is so fast. CoughSync connects to the ventilator and works in synchrony. The ventilator gives the person a breath in, and the suction device sucks the air out rapidly as it the patient coughed, bringing the secretions up without disconnecting the ventilator.” https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/New-Israeli-invention-used-to-treat-coronavirus-victims-in-China-617530
Since CoughSync, works simultaneously with ventilators, precious staff’s time is saved in the manual removal of ventilators from patients. Most importantly, CoughSync helps to decrease the infectivity to a staff, as well as, decreases the spread. The device helps to increase the effectiveness of ventilators as patients are weaned off faster.
Be’eri’s device was invented 10 years ago to help treat young adults, adolescents, and physically challenged and disabled children. The device is already approved for use in Europe. Three years ago the team was looking for a manufacturer and Beijing-based, Ruzin Medical Systems stepped in. https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/New-Israeli-invention-used-to-treat-coronavirus-victims-in-China-617530
i) Ruxin contacted the country’s National Medical Products Administration to speed up its regulatory approval process to get the device into hospitals to help patients.
ii) Danbei Xu, CEO of Ruxin Medical Systems stated, “We are in an advanced state of the regulatory process in China and hope to have approval within a few months.”
Over 300,000,000 students around the world are kept out of school as a precaution and home-school has never looked so good. Financial Corporations are shutting their doors one group, one segment or one business at a time. Work at home is becoming prevalent. Travel has stopped immensely, even just to the neighboring mall. COVID-19 knows no boundaries and continues its path devouring lungs and lives. The race against time and a stampede to mitigate its ravenous, nature, all heads and hands are in this pot, where too many cooks will not spoil the broth. Although, Tel Aviv is Beijing’s twin city, the world will need all of the help it can get.
