THE TEAM LEADING CSIRO’S VIRUS FIGHT:
FIGHT LOCALS LEAD GLOBAL COVID
LAST October, the CSIRO secured funding to fight a potential mysterious pathogen dubbed “Disease X” that could cause the next pandemic.
The CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in East Geelong procured funding from the international Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which ACDP director Trevor Drew said was “to the great credit” of both the centre and the CSIRO.
Little did anyone know at the time, but just months later the pipelines created by that global partnership would be critical for Geelong scientists at the forefront of a global quest for a COVID-19 vaccine.
“This allowed us to start setting up our pipeline for our trials we’re now using,” Professor Drew said.
“This is one of the reasons Australia is so in the lead.”
Disease X was a name adopted by the World Health Organisation, representing a hypothetical, unknown pathogen that could cause an international epidemic.
And a fight against a new global pandemic came just months after the CSIRO procured the support from CEPI.
COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China, with the earliest cases recorded in late 2019.
The virus has been linked to bats and pangolins.
On January 31 — more than a month before Greater Geelong had its first confirmed case of COVID-19 — the ACDP received the lab-produced version of the virus to kick off urgent research.
About two months later, after the CSIRO successfully established a biological model that was the first in the world to confirm that ferrets react to SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — it began preclinical trials of two potential vaccine candidates.
As the global death toll grew, scientists at the hi-tech East Geelong lab trialled the vaccine candidates — one from the US and one from Oxford University — on ferrets.
Staff at the lab are now compiling reports on the outcomes of the pre-clinical trials, expected to be submitted to CEPI within the next week.
Strict confidentiality protocols mean CSIRO was unable to reveal the findings of the trials to the Addy.
CEPI is set to discuss the results of the pre-clinical trials, testing the vaccine candidates’ safety and efficacy before potential human trials, with the World Health Organisation, Prof Drew said.
Further work on additional coronavirus vaccine candidates could be undertaken in the future at the high-containment biosecurity research facility.
Opened in 1985, the ACDP — until recently known as the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) — is the only facility in Australia and the southern hemisphere capable of and licensed to carry out diagnosis and research on a range of dangerous exotic pathogens.
Prof Drew said the lab had stringent processes to ensure the welfare of its animals.
“We’re here to protect the health of animals as well as people,” Prof Drew said.
“We have a very stringent process that makes sure there’s no undue suffering of animals and all procedures have been examined by an independent ethics committee.”
Scientists at the ACDP have not only been working around the clock on preclinical trials of vaccine candidates. They have been testing antivirals, analysing the lifespan of the virus on surfaces, and tracking the evolution of the virus, and how that could impact the efficacy of a vaccine.
“We’re doing some work looking in quite some detail on the survival of the virus on different materials and in different environments so we can inform the government of useful things to do in terms of disinfection and risk pathways,” Prof Drew said.
He said an example could include how long a hand rail on a train could carry the virus if someone held on to it after sneezing.
Tamara McDONALD tamara.mcdonald@news.com.au
THE VIRUS DOES CHANGE, THERE ARE CHANGES IN THE VIRUS THAT WE’VE OBSERVED OVER TIME AND EVEN ... IN HOW THE VIRUS IS EVOLVING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES COMPARED TO AUSTRALIA.” AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR DISEASE PREPAREDNESS DIRECTOR TIM DREW
“These are the sorts of questions that need to be answered, and will inform disinfection protocols,” he said.
Prof Drew said for people already suffering, the lab was investigating antiviral drugs that might help to reduce the damage to tissue, or get rid of the infecting virus.
And scientists are also working to understand the evolution of COVID-19 to inform how we tackle the pandemic moving forward.
“We’re also trying to understand more about the response of the infected animal to the infection. This will help to tell us what the body does to defend itself, both in a vaccinated and non-vaccinated animal,” Prof Drew said.
“We hope this will help understand what is the basis of immunity to this virus, how long immunity might last, how long would you be protected for,” he said.
Scientists are closely examining virus cases to look at how it is evolving, comparing how the virus is behaving in Australia with around the world.
“The virus does change, there are changes in the virus that we’ve observed over time and even ... in how the virus is evolving in different countries compared to Australia,” Prof Drew said.
The ongoing monitoring is crucial to ensuring there will not need to be multiple vaccines for multiple strains of the virus.
“We’re trying to find out what is the relationship between different types of this virus and any potential differences in the clinical signs we see,” he said.
Prof Drew, a Geelong local, was unsurprised when COVID-19 emerged.
“I was intrigued by the fact it was a respiratory disease because MERS and SARS had both emerged first of all as an enteric disease, as a gastroenteritis,” he said.
“The fact it was a coronavirus didn’t surprise me and the fact it was from Asia didn’t surprise me.
“I think the big lesson we need to learn is to make sure we understand the risks that wildlife pose potentially.
“Therefore we should try and preserve their ecosystems as they are and not intrude.
“The illegal wildlife trade is another area that’s a potential problem.”
Prof Drew said he also hoped Australia reflected on its need for sovereign capability in development and production of vaccines that it needs for its people.
He said the ACDP’s work in coronavirus was likely its most internationally significant yet.
“I think it was incredibly prescient of the politicians and scientists who supported the building of AAHL in the first place,” Prof Drew said.
“It’s a national treasure.”