RMRC Dibrugarh one step close to Covid vaccine
■ Indian scientists succeed in isolating coronavirus in tissue culture
In what may be called a major breakthrough in preparation of vaccine for coronavirus, scientists of Regional Medical Research Centre for N-E Region (ICMR-RMRC, Dibrugarh) at Lahowal, have succeeded in isolating the coronavirus in tissue culture.
It is significant that RMRC, Dibrugarh, is the third government laboratory in the country, after NIV (ICMR lab at Pune), CCMB (CSIR lab at Hyderabad) and Bharat Biotech (a private biotechnology lab at Hyderabad), to isolate the virus in tissue culture.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters that the scientists of RMRC — Dr Biswa Jyoti Borkakoti and his team led by Dr Aniruddha Jakharia — have isolated the Covid-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) in VERO-CCL81 cell line in the BSL-3 level lab available at their institute.
“The scientists used an immortal cell line VEROCCL81 (derived from kidney epithelial cell lines from green African monkey) which expresses the important ACE2 receptor needed by SARS-CoV-2 for cellular entry,” he said.
“In layman’s term, the significance of the Covid19 virus isolation is that live and viable SARS-CoV2 (Covid-19 virus) can now be produced in the laboratory in abundance and as and when required.”
He said: “This is important for the development of inactive Covid-19 vaccine where virus grown in laboratory are inactivated by heat or chemical and purified for use as vaccines after pre-clinical and clinical trials.”
“Further apart from vaccine development, the potential uses of cultures of SARS-CoV-2 includes drug screening for potential drugs or drug candidates against the virus, testing effectiveness of disinfectants, use in the development of therapeutic antibodies etc.”
It is also significant that Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with ICMR-NIV Pune (which supplied the virus grown in tissue culture), has developed an inactivated Covid-19 vaccine (Covaxin) which will go for Phase I and Phase II human clinical trials starting in July.