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Natural peptides might guard
against COVID-19

Two of our body’s natural defensins, HNP2 and HD5, might be a secret weapon against COVID-19, a new study reveals. These tiny peptides (mini-proteins) are produced by the immune system against germs.

Researchers from the University of Missouri used advanced computer simulations to view the interactions between the COVID virus and the defensins. The results indicate that HNP2 and HD5 could attach themselves to the virus’ spike protein, blocking it from locking onto your cells.

The defensins are also found in the lungs and gut, common places COVID attacks, which means they’re already stationed at the front lines.

The research team thinks defensins could be turned into something like a nasal spray or pill to help keep viruses at bay in the future.

This is not a cure — but is an interesting look into how our biology may inspire the next advancement in antiviral treatments. Lab tests are to follow.

The study was published in The Microbe.

More like this: Launching medical research

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Making this the last pandemic

There are a lot of people, Bill Gates included, who could have said “I told you so” at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2015, Gates warned a pandemic could happen and that the world was unprepared.

In How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, published seven years later, two years into a pandemic, Gates says, “Outbreaks are inevitable, but pandemics are optional.” At first glance, this seems optimistic, if not impossible: In a world this interconnected and interdependent, how can we reasonably and ethically contain outbreaks?

But the experts agree with Gates.

The World Health Organization’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response says the COVID-19 pandemic was a sign of how vulnerable our world is:

“Our careful scrutiny of the evidence has revealed failures and gaps in international and national responses that must be corrected,” the panel writes in a 2021 report. “Current institutions, public and private, failed to protect people from a devastating pandemic. Without change, they will not prevent a future one. That is why the panel is recommending a fundamental transformation to a new system of complete pandemic preparedness. If we fail to take this goal seriously, we will condemn the world to successive catastrophes.”

Current institutions, public and private, failed to protect people from a devastating pandemic. Without change, they will not prevent a future one.

– WHO’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response

“No one wants to live through this again ¬— and we don’t have to,” Gates writes. “If we make key investments that benefit everyone, COVID-19 could be the last pandemic ever.”

These key investments? Make and deliver better tools, including vaccines; improve disease monitoring; and strengthen health systems. Gates also advocates for a cross-disciplinary Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization (GERM) team that could contain outbreaks with speed and efficiency.

Some of these investments are already in the making: wastewater monitoring could keep an eye on infections in a community; mRNA vaccine technology has proved its efficacy; telehealth and health wearables changed the way we interact with health-care systems.

Others need more work. Gates calls for data to be available in real time, but data-protection laws and systems lag, and ethical concerns should not be ignored. Plus, changes need to be implemented worldwide, not just in countries that can afford it.

Gates’ calls for monitoring and responding to outbreaks are admirable, but a global coordinated effort is not realistic right now. Pandemics cross borders; they need countries to work together. They need collective investment and effective communication strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic proved some places are not ready, for socioeconomic and political reasons.

Dr. Eeshani Kandpal, senior economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank, says pandemic-preparedness efforts should focus on the relationship between health inequity and broader social and economic vulnerability.

“The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that pandemic preparedness planning cannot be divorced from the fight against inequality,” Dr. Kandpal writes in a 2022 editorial for the British Medical Journal. “Addressing these dual challenges will require investment and political will. Gaps in countries’ capacity to finance health were large before the pandemic and have further widened in its wake, creating a fault line that threatens health security for all. Centering health equity in pandemic preparedness planning is not just the right thing to do, but also the smart thing.”

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History of the mRNA vaccine

Nearly every function in the human body is carried out by proteins. Cells are constantly manufacturing them using single-strand messenger RNA, which is made from a DNA template. Each strand of mRNA holds the information on how to make one type of protein. The cell reads the mRNA, follows the instructions and makes a protein.

mRNA is a recipe book for the body’s cells. The idea? Make precise edits to the recipe, inject people with it, sit back and watch the body make all the proteins you need.

 IMAGE: Anas Al Bounni-KUST Review

Viruses come in different shapes and sizes. Some are DNA viruses, which contain DNA that integrates with the host DNA in certain cells, using that cell’s replication mechanism to multiply. These viruses can activate cancer genes in the host — the human papillomavirus (HPV) is known to cause cervical cancer, for example.

RNA viruses carry RNA and do not integrate that RNA into a host’s DNA. Instead, the RNA is directed to the host ribosomes in cells, with the ribosomes replicating the virus. These viruses do not interact with host DNA.

Once inside the body, the cell reads the vaccine mRNA and begins to make harmless spike proteins of its own. From there, the body recognizes them as a foreign threat and launches an immune response, teaching itself to respond to spike proteins. Should the actual coronavirus come knocking, your cells now know what to do.

The main drawback to mRNA vaccines? The mRNA breaks down very easily. It needs to be delivered inside a protective fatty barrier and kept cold.

mRNA vaccines are a groundbreaking way to elicit an immune response and their real impact is just beginning. Their applications don’t stop at COVID-19; we might be able to figure out the recipe for a cancer or HIV vaccine.

mRNA VACCINE HISTORY

1961-mRNA discovered.

1963-Interferon induction by mRNA discovered.

1965-First liposomes produced.

1969-First proteins produced from isolated mRNA in lab.

1971-Liposomes first used for drug delivery.

1974-Liposomes first used for vaccine delivery.

1978-First liposome-wrapped mRNA delivery to cells.

1984-mRNA synthesized in lab.

1989-First time synthetic mRNA in liposomes is delivered to human cells.

1992-mRNA tested as a treatment in rats.

1993-First mRNA vaccines tested for influenza in mice.

1995-mRNA tested as cancer vaccine in mice.

2005-Discovery that modified RNA evades immune detection.

2013-First clinical trial of mRNA vaccine for infectious disease (rabies).

2020-First mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use.

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How UAE managed the COVID-19 pandemic

The UAE was quick to turn to wastewater monitoring when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

“The United Arab Emirates was the first in the region and the fifth worldwide,” Habiba Al Safar, the director of Khalifa University’s Center for Biotechnology, tells KUST Review.

Al Safar and teammates Shadi Hasan and Ahmed Yousef, in partnership with the Ministry of the Interior and Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, established the surveillance pipeline and strategic plan to tackle the pandemic in its earliest days.

It wasn’t an easy task, Al Safar says.

The team worked around the clock to prepare in-house reagents in this country. We had the full support from the government, and that helped the program to keep going non-stop.

– Habiba Al Safar

“We established a scientific committee to discuss the best way to approach this pandemic by introducing an environmental surveillance program in the UAE. And given the full lockdown and the shortage of the supply chain of chemicals, equipment and reagents, we had to come up with a plan with existing equipment and laboratory facilities in the country. We had to build a dedicated laboratory for this program, and we did it in less than four months.”

Supply-chain issues made importing chemicals and consumables from abroad difficult.

“However, the team worked around the clock to prepare in-house reagents in this country,” Al Safar says. “We had the full support from the government, and that helped the program to keep going non-stop,” she adds.

Over the course of the pandemic, the university and government team members in Abu Dhabi helped inform UAE response policy, meeting weekly with top government officials and providing alerts when they spotted incoming waves, variants and disease hotspots.

This project also led the team to publish, with many surveillance programs established around the world using the project’s protocol, Al Safar says.

The wastewater monitoring, which has since been turned over to Ministry of the Interior, gave the government the information it needed for early detection of upcoming waves. This helped it create procedures and manage lockdowns.

“The UAE has managed the pandemic very well,” she says. “All the procedures and precautions that the decision makers were conducting and the massive PCR testing drives were to the benefit of our society and beloved people.” We are very lucky to have a leadership that cares for our well-being.”

Among other benefits from the project: It also provided training to UAE nationals and police officers, Al Safar says. “We didn’t just provide services. We provided training, knowledge, research and discoveries.”

In addition, the team recently filed a patent for a sensor that can detect the COVID-19 virus in wastewater in less than one minute.

In other responses to the pandemic, Khalifa University launched in 2020 a research and development program to rapidly develop knowledge and solutions in the areas of epidemiology; digital tools for virus-spread mitigation and resiliency; and diagnostics and medical devices. Sixteen projects were funded at a total level exceeding AED 10M. These included developing membranes for anti-viral masks; detailed knowledge regarding how the COVID-19 virus transmits between mammals and humans; and a mobile app that captures health data and detects early signs of COVID-19 symptoms.

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Keep an eye on the animals

If we’ve learned anything from COVID-19, it’s that we need to keep an eye on emerging diseases.

“Surveillance for emerging diseases contributes to global security. If basic surveillance and laboratory capacities are compromised, will health authorities catch the next severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or spot the emergence of a pandemic virus in time to warn the world and mitigate the damage?” Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, asked. In 2009.

The answer is obvious now.

Tracking zoonoses, pathogens that jump from animals to humans, is crucial for detecting disease emergence at the earliest time possible. Zoonotic pathogens will continue to emerge, and it will be impossible to track everything and prevent disease outbreaks, but a global zoonotic disease surveillance system could minimize the opportunity for emergence, transmission and global spread.

Surveillance for emerging diseases contributes to global security. If basic surveillance and laboratory capacities are compromised, will health authorities catch the next severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or spot the emergence of a pandemic virus in time to warn the world and mitigate the damage?

– Margaret Chan

Most new pathogens are zoonotic. Driving their increasing emergence are land-use and food-production practices and population pressure. SARS-CoV-2 is just an example of a zoonotic virus whose emergence was highly likely, says the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness. Experts also say zoonotic outbreaks are becoming more frequent, increasing the urgency for better detection and more robust preparedness.

The earlier a zoonotic disease can be detected, the better. Data sources need to distinguish an abnormal disease pattern from a typical one. Data can be sourced from animal owners, veterinarians, community members and health care providers, for example, and the data can range from informal observations to biological samples.

As data is collected, it needs to be analyzed and presented in easily understood formats for decision-makers to properly interpret and use the information.

Evolving IT has led to breakthroughs and new ways to collect and transmit epidemiological, clinical and demographical information. Data management and decision software and systems to analyze, present, interpret and use information are also rapidly improving.

Widespread Internet access also allows more timely dissemination of information. Real-time information about outbreaks was shared on dedicated forums, social media networks and other unofficial channels during the pandemic’s early days. Even the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network relies on web-based data for daily surveillance.

Disease-surveillance systems are judged on their timeliness, simplicity, flexibility, reliability and sensitivity. In a 2009 report, the National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Achieving Sustainable Global Capacity for Surveillance and Response to Emerging Diseases of Zoonotic Origin was unable to identify “a single example of a well-functioning, integrated zoonotic disease surveillance system across human and animal health sectors.”

An effective global, integrated zoonotic disease surveillance and response system did not exist in 2009. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, building one should be a priority.

Meanwhile, keeping an eye on the animals could also help prevent threats.

Bats, perhaps the original source for the COVID-19 virus (continuing on to humans possibly via raccoon dogs), could be key to avoiding the next catastrophe. “Bats have the potential to teach us a great deal about how to fight off disease,” University College Dublin’s Emma Teeling says in the Guardian.