The unique virus is d. Elham Kattan, a Saudi virologist, analyzes its nature and genesis Jeddah: Dr. Abdul Hafeez Yahya Khoja, "Corona", the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome currently prevalent, represents a unique type among the viruses of "RNA" (or "RNA", RNA) RNA. Through studies of genetic evolution,
It turns out that it has the property of reversing the genetic systems, and it has a wide distribution at the host level between mammals (lactae), including humans, as well as birds, and it causes primarily respiratory and intestinal diseases, and the infection is either acute or continuous.
Coronavirus in animals is an endemic virus that infects their intestinal and respiratory systems. However, how could it combine with the human virus? How did it appear in its "new" form? What factors made it able to spread effectively? How did it suddenly appear in human societies?
Are camels or bats the intermediate host for transporting them? Or are there other middle families? Is there a cure for it? What are the methods of prevention? "Your Health" directed these questions and other vague and widespread questions among people that everyone seeks to find the answer to Dr. Ilham Talaat Kattan, professor of pathogenic viruses and molecular sciences at the College of Applied Medical Sciences and member of the Board of Directors of the Genetics and Genetic Diseases Center at Taibah University in Madinah, and a member of the American Society Liver Diseases and a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Science. And her answer came as follows: “I will try, in a simple way, to shed light, while laying out possible scientific and logical explanations that explain and reveal the ambiguity, although there are some scientific expressions and connotations that must be included, but they may constitute an obstacle to comprehending this topic, which I do not deny that it is difficult for it to be understood. For all segments of society ».
coronavirus
In February 2003, Dr. Carlo Urbani, at a hospital in Vietnam, reported to the World Health Organization the spread of a virus causing acute respiratory syndrome with deaths. It was good at the time to discover that the virus that causes this syndrome can be isolated from the lungs and from phlegm as well, and by using the electron microscope with the multiplier device, it was defined as "coronavirus".
It appeared that the human vaccines that were collected and tested did not contain the antibodies directed against the virus, which indicates that this virus is a new mutation of the virus for the coronavirus in humans. Also, transmission to humans through this type through the mutation from the animal or by recombination between several human or animal Corona viruses makes this emerging virus very dangerous, and has characteristics that combine the mutated species, in addition to its ferocity, and then The immune system fails to recognize and eliminate it. At that time, there will be a necessary and important need to conduct studies on human and animal vaccines and their dendritic analysis in every area where the disease has spread, and then link everyone to confirm that conclusion and proposition.
A new virus
The genes of the emerging virus have been compared with similar genes from viruses known from humans, pigs, cows, dogs, cats, mice, rats, chickens, bats and camels. And it turns out that each gene has 70 percent or less of the genetic identity with a counterpart in the same family. These data then show that the new mutated virus was endemic to animals or a species of birds and coexisted with them since ancient times, and it was genetically isolated for a very long time in one way or another, to suddenly appear a malicious virus that infects humans. And this transmission to humans occurs only once due to a bad mix and not by random mutations, and then it now affects both humans and the original host, with the hypothesis that camels are the main reason for its spread and spread in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a hypothesis that has not been confirmed. Of them and proven to date.
Scientific dialogue
Did the mutation happen this way or the other way around?
It is useful to know that the multiplication of viruses in which the DNA or the genetic DNA is RNA, in which the paths of change and mutation increase, and then the virus is transmitted between species, with the ability to jump to human strains again and again and cause fatal outbreaks.
Do these strains share a common evolutionary ancestor?
The answer to this question is through the analysis of the emergence of genome evolution and the representation of dendrites between the different species, as the genetic and protein sequences within a single sample may clarify the separate and related groups in relation to the virus and the exact sites that represent similarities and differences, and then clarify the relationship between related and unrelated species.
MERS virus and camels. It is indicated here that when the MERS-Corona virus sequences are mentioned for the majority of cases that have been isolated from Saudi Arabia, the analyzes indicate that the rate of genetic molecular evolution is (1.48 × 10 S-3) that It was finally published (Cotten et al. 2014). And through it, it was found that there are more than 60 sequences of the viral genome from the Kingdom (KSA) that have the same theoretical and hypothetical phylogenetic approach and that the rate of evolution is slow So adding the genetic sequence of the virus to the analysis of samples from the strains extracted from humans and analyzing them through the camel strain within the cases The infected or suspected of the epidemiological group that was isolated and studied with the genetic sequence of the virus from camels isolated in Egypt, he explained that it is not associated with any known human cases, unlike the virus sequence from hybrids isolated from Qatar. Also, the ratios for separate groups of samples that were finally studied in March 2014 of the infected and reported cases that were in contact with camels do not indicate definitively or add evidence to support the role of camels in transmitting MERS-Corona or not across the peninsula. Arabic. For example, there are 94 confirmed cases that have no recorded link with other cases that may be the result of a primary infection. And that only seven of these cases mentioned exposure to camels, a percentage that is considered ineffective when compared to others.
If camels are not the source of infection and the link with camels is random, then how likely is it that we will see seven out of 94 related cases, will they have an epidemic impact or not?
Reports indicate that there are more than a million camels in the Arabian Peninsula, and if we assume for discussion that each one of the camels is matched by one of the human, then we expect that for every two percent of the people in the region have camels. This is not correct, but we conclude from it that seven out of 94 are under the potentially unaffected and unlikely in fact distribution to establish the link in transmission. Of course, there are other hypotheses that are more convincing, but the evidence is scant and the evidence is less.
Well, we agree together that some residents have direct contact with camels, and then from the isolated samples of them it turned out that they carry the antibodies to "MERS-Corona", but the genetic and protein isolation indicated that it is not the same as corona. In spite of the cases it caused nearly two years ago, this virus remained restricted geographically in the Arabian Peninsula if compared to others. We do not neglect that the clear evidence for the transmission of these strains is from human to human, but this is not sustainable and it is likely to me that humans have already transferred them to camels and have mutated and the repetition became periodic and restricted and then occurred with multiple related jumps from bats to camels or vice versa. In view of the theory of viral evolution and development, the virus may have settled in the Arabian Peninsula and settled there for a period of time as a result of the gates of Hajj and Umrah or as a result of the gates of animal trade, specifically camels, and then in some way as a result of repeated jumps between different strains and families that form and mutate in the way that with it resulted in us the virus that We know it now.
Increase in injuries
Why has there been no increase in human cases since early 2012 and then cases suddenly started this year and led to panic?
This is the question that presents itself and we are interested to know the answer to it, there are chances of the occurrence of zoonotic infections and the result in change, is the lack of monitoring, diagnosis, and change in human exposure to the virus and infection, and then it is possible that infected cases may be misdiagnosed as diseases Others are not being reported.
So, how can these human cases be explained with no direct exposure to animals?
There are a number of cases recorded without exposure to animals (such as camels), which are certainly part of the strains that are transmitted from human to human.
Effective treatment
Are there effective and successful treatments?
There are approved and effective antiviral drugs. However, the Ministry of Health generalizes treatment with interferon, which acts as an antiviral for most cases of infection with "RNA" viruses, and many medical companies may now set goals to develop some anti-virus drugs. It is important to know that from a scientific point of view, the Coronavirus infection begins with the protein (S) syndrome, which is located on the viral envelope, as it connects to special receptors on the cell membrane. And due to the various changes and mutations, this protein S leads to fusion as a first step in coronavirus infection. Then, the process of inhibiting the infection must take place from this stage, and therefore it is useful to develop a treatment that works to inhibit this association and thus prevent fusion and not being able to enter the cell and thus prevent infection in its early stages. We must focus on treatment by creating or producing a vaccine against infection and spread, as the establishment of the virus can be laboratory manipulated as the primary virus with its loss of the ability to cause infection and thus the possibility of producing a vaccine.
Many other questions may still arise, including: Why has this virus out of control now and at this particular time? What is the position of the World Health Organization (WHO) in monitoring and detecting the virus in the rest of the world? Why was the MERS-Corona virus found in camels with some human-related cases? Perhaps we will know her answers in a future issue.
Promising vaccines against the "Middle East virus"
Dr. Elham Kattan said that what was stated in Professor Wayne Marasco''s statement to "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" last Wednesday, suggests that some drugs and inhibitors will soon be issued while it is in the testing phase to secrete anti-virus activity.
Fortunately, this vaccine will be used for high-risk groups of elderly and young people who suffer from chronic respiratory or chest diseases, or those who suffer from heart disease and kidney failure, and health sector workers such as nurses and doctors, and it may also be effective in treating some colds that do not know their causes and some Other lung infections.
