Today as the Covid vaccine rolls out all over the world in record time, a look back on another virus research, HIV shows how such a mammoth task could be achieved.
HIV research of more than 3 decades paved the way for all virus studies and research work and because of that we are seeing such a massive success in COVID, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Here’s a look into their investigative report.
A Cunning Mutating Virus That Showed the Way
As states and hospitals in the U.S. race to roll out the first Covid-19 vaccines, WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez hears from a hospital administrator and immunization expert about the logistical challenges involved in this first phase of the vaccination process.
People are receiving Covid-19 vaccines less than a year after public health authorities discovered SARS-CoV-2, the deadly new coronavirus. How did it happen so quickly? In part, the world can thank decades of frustrating and often fruitless research to find a vaccine for Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Many of the new technologies and approaches employed to create potent Covid-19 vaccines and therapies trace their origins to the desperate search, starting in the early 1980s, to slow the spread of HIV.
AIDS has claimed 33 million lives to date, and 38 million people are currently living with HIV. There is still no vaccine. But since 1982, the U.S. has invested more than $76 billion in lifesaving treatments, quietly revolutionizing the development of vaccines and therapies for other viruses, including the coronavirus.
“Everything we do with every other pathogen spins off of things we’ve learned with HIV,” said Anthony Fauci, a leader in HIV research as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
Scientists haven’t yet been able to develop an effective AIDS vaccine, partly because HIV is one of the most cunning, complex pathogens ever encountered. Like the coronavirus, HIV has a spike or envelope protein that binds to receptors on the surface of cells, but in HIV it doesn’t stay intact long enough to be efficiently attacked by the immune system.
Over decades of work, however, HIV researchers developed a better understanding of the complex workings of the immune system. They mapped out in detail how HIV invades cells and replicates, and identified weak spots in the virus that can be targeted by drugs. Using X-ray crystallography and later electron microscopy, combined with computer modeling, researchers created highly detailed three-dimensional images of proteins on the surface of HIV. The idea was to use the images to engineer antigens, molecules that generate an immune response and prompt the body to mount a defense against the virus.
And not just the molecular and scientific basis of virus research, fighting this cunning virus has given the world a framework on how countries can act in solidarity and collaborate to stem the reaction.
That’s why you such a strengthened multistep framework in place for covid where manufacturing and research work is going on in several countries – from the most deprived regions in Africa to more wealthy places in the West to the developing countries like India.
This shows how cutting edge technology powered by well-planned frameworks and solidarity can work.
Read the full article here.
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Source: The Wall Street Journal
