how much progress has been made in the fight against the coronavirus

More than a year and a half after the start of the pandemic, coronavirus investigations show good science news as the basis for new drugs or the immune system’s response to the virus in the era of the first vaccines.

The key to checking the body’s defenses against COVID is in immunological memory which indicates when the defenses falter and that it is time for the third dose of vaccine then annual doses that they will have to renew the defenses.

In both areas, surveys they are very advanced. The president of Italian microbiologists, Pierangelo Clerici, intervened in the imperative debate on when to establish the need to strengthen the defenses against the virus. “The serological test is a slippery argument for how much and until when we are well protected,” he said.

Clerici explained that there are no international standards yet to assess when its level is low or high compared to the required dosage. The first mass vaccinations date back to December and January 2020 in Europe, which began with health professionals, frail people and those over 80 years old.

In Italy from October it will be discussed when to start the third dose, which have already started injecting into countries like Great Britain, Israel and Uruguay.

Memory “is a well-known mechanism that pampers the immune system. memorize antigens with which it comes into contact the first time to react more quickly and more intensely in the event of subsequent contact, thus managing to eliminate the pathogen involved ”, underlines the microbiologist Clerici.

Still in the case of the Covid 19 pandemic, “immunological memory is a weapon that only fires when it comes into contact with the enemy, that is to say the virus”.

“Projectiles are antibodies, product when needed“, Entrusted the scientist to the agency UffPost.

In other words, regardless of the results of a serological test that indicates the level of antibodies, immunological memory can create the antibodies necessary to fight the invading virus.

It is true that zero antibody values ​​can mean a missing response to the vaccine, “But it’s a very rare case varying between 2 and 4% of those vaccinated who do not respond ”.

Clerici explains the important conclusion that it is because of the 2 to 4% of subjects who do not respond to the bombardments of antibodies that trigger the immunological memory “that they must be protected, vaccinate us all ”.

Don’t be afraid of the decrease in antibodies. It occurs in all vaccinations. The important thing “is that the immunological memory remains”.

In Italy, the great contagion power of the Delta variant, which dominates the spread of the virus by 99.7% ”, has forced the general vaccination rates of the population to increase.

In Italy, the target of 70% is set for the end of September and 80% in October. Some scientists argue that due to Delta’s contagiousness, the protection will be achieved with 95% of the vaccinated population, this represents more than 56 million inhabitants.

With this panorama, the third dose of reinforcement of the defenses should begin in the boreal autumn, that is to say since September 21.

Investigations in London

Investigations are advancing rapidly. One of the most important is carried out by researchers at King’s College London.

At King’s, there is a system at the forefront of scientific research which, together with a robotic system experience the effects of thousands and thousands of molecules in record time, which is used to find a result.

A new drug

In the case of the pandemic, they were found the basics of a drug capable of blocking the devastating effect of the Covid 19 virus on the lungs. The double pneumonia caused by the action of the plague becomes devastating.

Professor Mauro Giacca, one of the King’s College medical researchers, explained how the discovery was made.

“Very peculiar structures of large aggregates of fused cells, called zincs, appear in patients who have died from Covid. Indeed, the “peak” protein of the virus, which is used to penetrate the surface of the victim’s cells, activates a molecule which favors this fusion ”.

Mixtures of mergers promote thrombosis, present in severe forms of Covid in 90% of patients.

Giacca says that at King’s College “we have collections with virtually all drugs approved for human use, over 3,800, and we have robotic instruments that allow us to experiment against any type of target.”

Niclosamide against thrombosis

This is how we discovered it the most effective drug against fatal thrombosis caused by the virus to the lungs of infected people. Welcome to the ancient and well-known worm, the tapeworm, the most famous gastrointestinal worm. To fight their infections, it is used niclosamida, which responds optimally to tests against thrombosis caused by the Covid 19 virus in the lungs.

“Thanks to an international agreement, an experiment is underway in five centers in India. In South Korea, pharmaceutical company Daewoong supplied the drug niclosamide to infected ferrets and three days later the virus had completely disappearedEnthuses Investigator Jacket.

In India, niclosamide is tested with patients suffering from more advanced forms of Covid and the results they are “very positive”.

The successes of science, which has already achieved the unprecedented feat of vaccinating millions of people one year later since the plague broke out in early 2020, when before it took no less than four years to reach them, they are encouraging but the pandemic has not yet been defeated.

The king of North American virologists has passed through Italy, the professor Antoine Fauci, Advisor to the President of the United States. He left his only recipe for winning this war: “Vaccinate everyone.”

The whole world is more than 7,500 million inhabitants. Only a minority have been vaccinated. And as long as mass vaccination is not extended to the whole planet, “there will always be the danger of them appearing. much worse variants than Delta, capable, as we say in scientific circles, “Pierce” all vaccines, make them useless against the virus.

The world is now trying to contain the Delta outpost, which infects nine times more than previous dominant viruses, and does not “break through” vaccines. To have make them less efficient 20-30%, forcing the search for new weapons to combat it, from the third dose which has started to be applied in some countries as an essential strengthening of the body’s defenses.

A new variant

The latest strain that is of growing concern to scientists is a new South African variant, identified as C.1.2 in May 2021.

Studies indicate that this variant has the highest number of mutations compared to all others sequenced so far.

The alarm of the experts grows that they fear that this could happen to “puncture” all the vaccines. C.1.2. has the highest number of mutations in the Spike protein of the individualized virus to date. Scientists say that in addition to being transmissible, it could resist the antibodies produced with vaccinations.

South African experts are watching closely to prevent a large-scale spread of this mutation. Variant C.1. since January of this year has been able to develop seven changes in European, African and Asian countries.

The large number of mutations converts him preferred heir to the Delta variant. Their viral traps have the ability to bind to Ace2 receptors in the human body, opening the door for human cells to enter with “reduced neutralizing activity”.

Rome, correspondent