This switched “Vista to see the world”, author: Chen Shu

The new coronavirus epidemic continues to spread, with hundreds of millions of people across the country trapped in their homes. The world outside is fraught with uncertainty. Masks are an important line of defense for ordinary people against viruses, but even if they go out wearing them, many people don’t feel safe.

Yesterday (January 29), there was some new good news about the prevention and control of the epidemic.

A message is: The official public name of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that:

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences has just developed antibody test strips for research; at the same time, the Institute and the Institute of Toxicology and Drugs of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences have discovered that the new coronavirus is better at the cellular level. Inhibition of three kinds of “old drugs”, such as Remidivevir or Rendesivir (GS-5734), Chloroquine (Sigma-C6628), and Ritonavir. Its subsequent clinical use is undergoing related procedures for approval.

We previously interviewed a researcher who explained that considering the cost and cycle of new drug development, the current treatment of this new virus can only rely on existing drugs. Many research institutions are conducting similar research, and the results of the Chinese Academy of Sciences suggest that these three drugs work better against viruses.

As for the “antibody test strip”, I consulted the aforementioned researchers, and he explained that this means: We may have found a new and faster way to detect viruses:

I read the news that nucleic acid tests are commonly used in hospitals at present, and it usually takes 4 to 5 hours for the test to yield results.

The study of antibody test strips aims to detect viruses more quickly. For example, the early pregnancy test strip is an antibody test strip, which will soon yield results. It’s just that the early pregnancy test strips use progestin antibodies. Viral test strips are similar in principle to early pregnancy test strips, but replaced with viral protein antibodies.

If the performance of this antibody test strip is better, the detection efficiency will be much higher, and the results will be produced in a few minutes. Of course, it is unknown at this time what is the performance of the antibodies used in this kind of test strip developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, whether the detection speed is fast, the specificity is high or not, and further evaluation is needed.

Beyond treatment, more and more people are paying attention to another line of defense, the progress of vaccines. There is no doubt that vaccines are an important barrier for ordinary people against infectious diseases. There is a famous example: over a hundred years ago, smallpox was an infectious disease that was discoloring, ancient and deadly, causing a total of about 300 million deaths worldwide. The emergence of the vaccinia vaccine has ended smallpox’s raging everywhere. Since then, smallpox has been “fortunately” to become the first infectious disease successfully eradicated by humans. Of course, unfortunately, this is the only infectious disease currently ending in humans.

Yesterday, Li Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a member of the high-level expert group of the National Health and Medical Commission, revealed the progress of vaccine research in an interview with CCTV: At present we are very close to having a vaccine. Of course, there needs to be a process after that.

Li Lanjuan: Now that we have the vaccine seed strain, we can grow the vaccine seed strain into a vaccine strain. With vaccine strains we can make vaccines.

1, record speed

On January 28, Li Lanjuan said in an interview with CCTV News 1 + 1 that three new coronavirus strains were isolated in the laboratory of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University. Previously, on January 24, the China CDC successfully isolated China’s first new coronavirus strain. Subsequently, news about the successful isolation of a new coronavirus strain by various disease centers in various provinces appeared frequently. On January 29, following China, the Australian Doherty Institute successfully cultivated the first new type of coronavirus strain overseas.

These news are exciting because the isolation of the virus strain is so significant.

Zhang Yanjun, director of the Institute of Microbiology Testing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, introduced to the media that in the short term, with the virus strain, some rapid diagnostic reagents can be developed, which means that the current testing needs The reduction of about 3 hours to 15 minutes to half an hour will greatly help the hospital’s clinical diagnosis and treatment.

In the long run, the isolation of viral strains is an important step in drug development and vaccine development. Just as Li Lanjuan introduced earlier, “The successful isolation of a new coronavirus strain means that we have a vaccine seed strain. By cultivating a vaccine seed strain into a vaccine strain, we can prepare a vaccine.”

On January 29, Hong Kong University infectious disease expert Yuan Guoyong announced that his research team has developed a new type of pneumoniaPoison vaccine seed.

This speed is already a record.

On January 27th, Wu Lei Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei, Zhou Lei, a member of the medical team of the Air Force Military Medical University and a doctor of the military, had severe pneumonia in the laboratory against new coronavirus infection A patient’s disease sample is tested for nucleic acids. (Xinhua News Agency)

There is an industrialization process for traditional vaccines from R & D and production to distribution and use. According to the State Drug Administration, usually, a vaccine has to go through a long R & D process of at least 8 years or even more than 20 years.

For viral vaccines, screening of strains is a preclinical study. After necessary strain attenuation, exploration of process quality stability, establishment of animal models and other processes, after producing vaccine strains, animal tests are performed according to each vaccine situation. The entire preclinical study generally takes 5-10 years. After all clinical trials, the vaccines that have passed the declaration can be marketed and produced.

Now, vaccines for the new coronavirus are likely to be available in a few months. Li Lanjuan introduced:

There is a process to prepare a vaccine. After the vaccine seed strains come out, they must be cultured by cell lines. If this process is to obtain the vaccine strain, it takes one month. After the vaccine strain is obtained, it must be carried out. Some aspects of inspection and testing will take half a month. After coming out, they must pass the appraisal of the appraisal department and pass the first and second phase of the relevant country’s verification.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has also stated that the development cycle of the new coronavirus vaccine will be 3.25 months or even shorter.

2, is it too late?

On January 26, Xu Wen, Director of the Institute of Virology, China CDCBo said the center has begun research and development of a new coronavirus vaccine.

Experts from various provinces and cities have also begun to fight the battle of vaccine research and development in the laboratory. According to a financial report, Wuhan Bowo Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is cooperating with GeoVax Labs Inc, a leader in the field of human vaccine research and development, to jointly develop a new coronavirus 2019-nCoV vaccine.

Furthermore, according to Shangguan News, the Translational Medicine Platform of Dongfang Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University cooperated with Siwei (Shanghai) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. to rapidly promote the development of a new coronavirus mRNA vaccine.

The mRNA vaccine is a new type of messenger ribonucleic acid-based vaccine. The biggest feature is “fast”, and the development cycle can be shortened to about three months. According to Aubree Gordon, a professor of public health at the University of Michigan, mRNA vaccine technology is the first choice for new, sudden and large-scale epidemic diseases such as new coronavirus, Zika virus, Ebola virus and influenza virus.

At the same time, in the United States, Australia and other overseas countries, a team of top medical experts has joined the battle between humans and new viruses.

In response to Wuhan pneumonia, the United States recently formed a new vaccine research team headed by Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The team uses mRNA vaccine technology.

On January 27, the medical staff of the Naval Military Medical University were processing patients’ orders. (Xinhua News Agency)

Fauchi wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the vaccine was developed by implanting a component of the coronavirus into a non-lethal cold virus that provokes an immune response, which is following the other two Experience and foundation left by dangerous coronaviruses—SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) vaccines.

In addition, a team of Australian scientists led by Professor Chapel of the University of Queensland is developing a new vaccine commonly known as “molecular clamp”. The principle of this technology is to provide stability to viral proteins-synthetic viral surface proteins that “clamp” the shape of host cells during infection, making it easier for the immune system to recognize them as the correct antigen.

This is also a very fast development-according to official information from the University of Queensland, the new coronavirus vaccine developed by the research team can be put into production around the world in as little as six months.

“We fly and build airplanes.” J. Joseph Kim lamented to Science magazine, the CEO of Inovio, which announced the development of a new coronavirus vaccine on January 26.

Although the speed has been so fast, Science magazine believes that vaccines have proven their worth in clinical trials, and scientists are working hard to overcome difficulties. However, experience shows that vaccines have a limited effect , There are two reasons:

1. As the temperature rises and government control measures progress, it is likely that the epidemic will be controlled and eliminated before the vaccine is developed. It took 20 months for the SARS vaccine to be genetically sequenced in 2003 to develop a vaccine.

The epidemic has just ended shortly after scientists have successfully inoculated rhesus monkeys.

2. The problem of mass production. J. Joseph Kim stated frankly that the current productivity of Inovio is 100,000 doses per year. Moderna, another larger vaccine maker, has stopped production of all other vaccines and can only produce 100 million doses per year.

If the worst case happens, the epidemic does not disappear, but the global outbreak, such production capacity, can not meet the needs of the public.


Thus, it may indicate that its appearance is likely to be too late, or even to have a significant impact on the epidemic.