Well an American in Taiwan, and a New Zealander in Germany are leading teams that have found an interesting attack point for that bug, in the bug's gene sequence.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-h...ral-therapies/
The Article Print:
Researchers have discovered a new gene in the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, which they hope will provide vital information on its unique biological make-up and offer new possibilities for anti-viral treatments.
No apologies at all for using the word "politically" in this forum. /s
The new peer-reviewed study, by an international team led by Chase W. Nelson, a postdoctoral research fellow at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and Zachery Ardern, a junior group leader at the Technical University of Munich, is published in the eLife scientific journal today.
It reveals a novel gene in the SARS-CoV-2 genome that the scientific community had previously overlooked because it overlaps with another unrelated gene, known as ORF3b. The new gene, now called ORF3d, is also found in pangolins native to Guangxi province in southern China.
“This is a recently evolved novel gene that therefore is a top candidate to explain some of the unique biological attributes of the virus. Because the genome is only around 15 genes total, one could make a huge difference,” explained Dr Nelson.
The paper points out that overlapping genes (OLG) have been previously been associated with the emergence of a pandemic strain. One of the most notable examples in recent years has been the presence of an OLG in the HIV-1 lineage, which scientists are still investigating.
The new study shows that ORF3d makes a new protein that is not present in the genome of the original Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), which caused a deadly outbreak in 2002-2004, or in other related viruses.
For the researchers, one of the most important applications of the discovery is to help prevent false inferences and achieve more accurate results as the global scientific community continues its investigations into the behaviour of the potentially-lethal virus.
“The consequence should be that people will realise that actually this gene we are investigating is totally unique to SARS-CoV-2 and therefore it should be a top candidate for investigating its pandemic potential, or possibly ways that it thwarts the immune system,” said Dr Nelson.
The report concludes that the findings offer “strong leads for further research,” including for “immunological properties,” which could create more treatment options.
“In terms of 3d, one possible therapeutic application is that there could be effective anti-virals that target it if it’s important,” said Dr Nelson.
“Another observation is that 3d’s protein does provoke one of the strongest antibody responses in human infection. So that establishes two things. Number one, it is translated into protein, so it makes the product, and number two that antibodies target it very effectively.”
The researchers stress that while one pangolin virus has the novel gene, that this does not provide evidence either way about whether the pangolin was the reservoir of the current pandemic.
They also point out that the unexpected emergence of an overlapping gene adds to the evidence against the conspiracy theory that the virus was engineered in a laboratory.
Fabio Romerio, associate professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said the study added “a new piece of the SARS-CoV-2 puzzle that scientists are trying to put together to understand the virus’ biology.”
He said it was possible – although still too soon to predict – that it could be useful for the development of vaccines or therapies.
“We know that SARS-CoV-2 spreads much more rapidly than – for instance – SARS-CoV. This could be because –although these two viruses have the same “recipes" – they are not exactly the same and the ones in the SARS-CoV-2 genome give products that allow the virus to spread more rapidly,” he said.
“An alternative explanation could be that the new gene in SARS-CoV-2 discussed in Dr Nelson’s study, which is absent in SARS-CoV, makes the virus more fit to spread among humans,” Prof Romerio added.
“If that is proven to be the case, and if we can discover a way of countering or blocking the activity of this new gene, then we may have a new therapeutic target.”
End of Article
OK, so note the last sentence.
Ignoring all the disclaimers throughout the article, when a John Hopkins professor says "may have a therapeutic target", that's the medically politically correct way to say they're gonna nuke the "3d" with everything they they have, until it melts like a snowball in hell.
Covid update - new gene to attack unveiled
