Disease of clean hands
The Russian Academy of Sciences revealed the coronavirus paradox
The use of a vaccine against COVID-19 can lead to the development of the disease, and not protect against it. On Tuesday, the chief virologist of the United States, Deputy Director for Science of the Department of Vaccines of the main Agency of the United States Food and Drug Administration (the main Agency of the United States for Food and Drug Administration) warned about such an unexpected outcome of the creation of modern antiviral drugs Konstantin Chumakov. For the first time, he participated in an online meeting of the Council for Life Sciences at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
About immunity
– The number of new COVID-19 cases is increasing, but mortality is no longer keeping up with them. Either the virus becomes less evil, or we have learned how to treat this disease," the son of the famous Soviet scientist Mikhail Petrovich Chumakov, founder and first director of the Institute of Polio and Viral Encephalitis of the Russian Academy of Sciences, summed up at the beginning of his speech.
He noted that the situation in the United States with the coronavirus now resembles the coming of the second wave, however, like in Russia, this is only the first wave, rolling through the United States.
The arrival of the second COVID-19 outbreak does not exclude Chumakov in principle, although he notes that in those states from where the epidemic began to spread, collective immunity has most likely already appeared.
– There is one aspect: most of those who do not experience symptoms, and who do not have antibodies, still acquire immunity to the coronavirus, – says Konstantin Chumakov. – This suggests that these people could have had not an antibody, but a T-cell response to the disease.
About vaccines
So what kind of vaccine does humanity need from the coronavirus? According to the overseas virologist, it should be safe, effective, develop long-term immunity, as well as be convenient for storage, use and have a not very high cost.
Having listed all possible types of vaccines: whole-virion, subunit, vector, DNA vaccines, live vaccines, Chumakov highlighted the latter:
– Creating them is not easy, but ideally they can become the next generation of vaccines.
According to the latest data, 132 vaccines are currently at various stages of development worldwide. 17 of them are at the stage of clinical trials (9 – in the first phase, 6 – in the second phase, 2 – in the third).
"A few days ago, we received information from China that they have already licensed one vaccine for military personnel," the scientist said. – This is an adenovirus vector vaccine.
By the way, a similar type of vaccine is being tested now in Russia, at the Gamalei Institute, as reported earlier by Chumakov's Russian colleagues, but he himself did not name the Russian drug among the leading ones.
But he noted that haste in the manufacture of vaccines is fraught with serious consequences:
– Trump has now announced a paramilitary operation in order to shorten the development of vaccines due to the danger of further spread of the virus. But we still do not know the mechanisms of protection against it. We know, for example, that neutralizing antibodies are short-lived, not everyone has them, and that the role of cellular immunity is more significant...
According to Chumakov, there is a danger that antibodies and vaccination may not only not help, but strengthen the disease. This occurs with the AZUI – antibody-dependent increase in infection, when specific antibodies (IgG) form imperfect, fragile complexes with the virus, not interfering, but helping it to infect the host's leukocytes.
– Therefore, it is important, – summed up Chumakov, – that future vaccines cause not only the appearance of antibodies, but the predominance of neutralizing antibodies, so that they not only bind, but also kill the virus.
Alternatives to vaccines
Now almost all developed vaccines "target" the surface protein of the virus – S: block it, prevent communication with the cell receptor. But putting all the eggs in one basket is dangerous. Therefore, Chumakov urged to pay attention to other ways of protection.
One of such ways, in his opinion, may be to strengthen our innate immunity with so-called live vaccines:
– I can boast that my mother, Maria Voroshilova, working at the Polio Institute, showed that the use of a live polio vaccine against influenza during a seasonal outbreak resulted in a reduction in the incidence by more than three (!) times. This is a simple and cheap way to protect against various viruses, and it is a sin not to use it. Last month, my colleague Roberto Gallo, who discovered the HIV virus in 1983, and I published an article on the use of nonspecific body protection caused by live vaccines to protect against COVID-19.
Virusphere
An interesting question was raised at the end of the meeting by Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical and Vector-Borne Diseases named after E.I. Marcinovsky Alexander Lukashev:
– The current COVID-19 has already been called the disease of clean hands. It is noted that the lower the level of sanitation in the country, the higher the immune protection of its citizens from all kinds of bacterial and viral infections.
– This is quite consistent with what I think, – the overseas guest supported his colleague. – There is a clear correlation between the level of development of the country and the number of COVID-19 cases. And this dependence is not in favor of highly developed countries.
The point is that residents of countries where they try to actively avoid all kinds of infections, sometimes deprive themselves of natural immunization.
– It is also impossible not to take into account the fact that different viruses interact with each other and this process, this virosphere is very little studied, – said Chumakov. – There is, for example, a theory that we get less flu in the summer due to the fact that enteroviruses replace it during the warm months. It is interesting in this vein, what will happen to the coronavirus in winter – the time of flu dominance? Will it interfere with the coronavirus?
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