Scientific contribution of Latin America against COVID-19

The greatest fear of a developing country is being the last to get vaccinated during a pandemic – and it has happened before. African countries know it all too well: when H5N1 hit in 2004 and later H1N1 in 2009, they were among the last to receive vaccines. The most developed countries ensured that they could obtain large quantities which were then stored despite the pledge of donation. Vaccine nationalism affects us all, yet we are seeing signs that it is happening again.

Latin American scientists have been battling this fear since the onset of COVID-19. During the pandemic, students volunteered to produce safe equipment for health workers in their countries, but scientists knew they had to do more. Despite the difficulties encountered, Latin American scientists have made strong contributions that are beneficial not only to their own country, but also to their neighbors.

Uruguay

Making Latin America very proud, Uruguay is the country with the lowest number of cases, less than 2,000 cases and less than 500 deaths. It is through effective early action of universal health care and active communication. In an article from British medical journalUruguay has been hailed as “having a cover” on COVID-19.

“Uruguay continues to give hope” to the region, said Marcos Espinal, head of the Communicable Diseases and Health Analysis Department at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The country’s response could offer various lessons to the region and to the world, ”the BMJ article notes.

But despite being one of the more developed countries in the region and having such a strong response, Uruguay has also shown how easy it is to lose control of the virus, with cases early on. of 2021 reaching unprecedented levels.

Uruguay has also participated in research throughout the pandemic. In the early stages, the WHO recommended a more conservative method for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2, but scientists from the Universidad de la República and the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo decided to develop a direct and less expensive to test the disease and deploy large-scale testing. This is called a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

Their idea came true and they quickly prepared tests that are being used around the country to detect COVID-19. Within weeks, Uruguay had kits to test its population using a network of laboratories between public hospitals and academia, around 1,000 tests per day. This level of effectiveness made one of the researchers involved, Gonzalo Moratorio, one of Nature’s 10’s 10. It also turned out to be one of the main methods by which Uruguay controlled the virus for a good part of the year.

That’s not all: the Uruguayan kits at 13 dollars received funding from Mercosur (Southern Common Market) in order to produce more kits to distribute in other countries. However, Uruguay was quick to roll out another measure to help contain the virus: closing most of its borders to international travel.

Mexico

Mexico was the first country in Latin America to start vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech. They recently approved Sputinik V and plan to use the single-dose Convidencia, a vaccine developed in China by CanSino Biologics, which recently showed 67% effectiveness.

In terms of production, with the help of Argentina, the country plans to produce AstraZeneca vaccines for distribution in Latin America at affordable prices. The partnership is established between two companies: Argentina mAbxience and Laboratoire Liomont in Mexico; mAbxience supplies the active ingredient for production which makes the vaccine even more accessible to Argentina.

Mexico has suffered greatly, as the world lost in 2020 Mario Molina, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery of the effects of CFCs on the depletion of the ozone layer during his postdoctoral research. This work prompted the United Nations to create the Montreal Protocol. Despite being a professor at the University of California at San Diego, his advocacy to make face masks mandatory was well known to Mexican citizens.

Months before his death, he participated in a study to understand the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through aerosols. He said transmissions could be greatly reduced by using face masks. The problem was that there were serious flaws in the publication, some epidemiologists even called for the publication to be deleted. The methodology did not give enough credit to social distancing restrictions and lacked more sophisticated statistical analysis. We now know the importance of face masks thanks to more careful research, some similar analyzes even cite the study.

Brazil

In Brazil, the pandemic has hit hard. Partly because of socio-economic conditions, but also because of questionable leadership. It became the country with the second highest number of cases, with President Bolsonaro calling on the country to “stop being sissies.” But important scientific information on transmission and immunity to COVID-19 has emerged from Brazil.

The second worst country facing the COVID-19 situation has recently received hope. Two vaccines are currently in use for emergency use, CoronaVac and AstraZeneca. The vaccination started in January with the CoronaVac, her arrival was celebrated so much that there is even a popular song for her.

Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac will be produced in the country under the supervision of Instituto Butantan in São Paulo. The vaccine has an overall effectiveness of 50.38%, but above all 100% effectiveness against moderate and severe cases, a major help for a country on the verge of collapse of its health system. Along with CoronaVac, the other vaccine that will be produced in Brazil is the Oxford-AstraZeneca, the cheapest in the world. The Brazilian will produce it with the help of Fundação Oswaldo (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro.

A group made up only of Brazilian scientists from Fiocruz, Instituto Vital Brazil and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro are also developing a serum to treat patients with SARS-CoV-2. It uses horse antibodies, more specifically a glycoprotein, a technique usually used by Vital Brazil to produce hyperimmune sera. What the scientists do is inject the virus into the horses, which don’t get sick, so they make the antibodies. It is estimated that 80 horses can produce enough plasma for 10,000 ampoules of serum. The team is awaiting approval of the start of trials by Anvisa (Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency).

Cuba

The Caribbean country enjoys great renown for its medical prowess and diplomatic mission to send medics around the world – the pandemic has not changed that. Cuban doctors have arrived in 40 different countries during the pandemic.

Cuba has recorded around 150 deaths and less than 12,000 cases. Now that the race is on to vaccinate its population, with 4 studies underway in the country, the Cuban government plans to start vaccination in the first quarter of the year.

Soberana 2, developed by Instituto Finlay de Vacunas, is the most promising vaccine they currently have. Phase 3 tests will be carried out with assistance from Iran. The vaccine is a safe and promising immunizer for infants and the elderly, it contains part of the viral protein and is mixed with the tetanus vaccine. Two other vaccines in development are Abdala and Soberana 1 (also from a Finlay study) are still in phase 2.

But the most interesting is Mambisa which is administered through a nasal spray, people who suffer from needle phobia may be happy to hear about it. Mambisa, which is in phase 1, uses part of the protein from the receptor binding domain of the coronavirus and a stimulus for the immune system using a hepatitis B protein.

Argentina

The same technique used for Brazilian serum has already been approved by ANMAT (Argentine Health Regulatory Agency). It reduced mortality in 45% of patients with severe stages of the disease. The serum was developed by the biotechnology company Inmunova. It started being given in January, at a more advanced rate than in other countries also trying the same method, such as Brazil.

The therapy was developed using the recombinant receptor binding (RBD) domain of the virus to stimulate antibody production in mice and horses. While the Brazilian study uses a different antigen, the trimeric peak glycoprotein (S).

In the meantime, the Argentine government has not moved away from the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and decided to import it in December. Doubts about Sputnik did not frighten ANMAT, so they accepted it in an emergency. Well, we now have confirmation so this is great news for Argentina, although Argentina may not get all the vaccines they expect for a while.

Much like global warming, the ongoing pandemic is a challenge that requires both global and local solutions. It is not only the most developed countries that can make a difference in the midst of a crisis, let alone in the face of denial of science. Hopeful news like the one presented here should be celebrated and serve as a motivator for developing countries, without fueling selfish nationalist policies that will make matters worse for everyone.