A novel enemy Outflanking a pathogen
This is part two of a four part series in A Novel Enemy, a project funded by the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund.
While most people tried to avoid the coronavirus, Miguel Quin˜ ones-Mateu grew it. It happened under strict controls – he’s a virologist, and a professor at the University of Otago’s Dunedin campus.
Those in the lab had full protection, including a helmet and respirator, shoe covers, double gloves and tape – and a shower on the way out.
‘‘Anything that goes into the lab stays in the lab. You cannot take anything in with you. No paper, nothing. All the labs are equipped with cameras and wifi,’’ he said.
Medical and scientific minds – and immune systems – faced a novel enemy when the virus which causes Covid-19 emerged.
In two months, everyone became a coronavirologist, Quin˜ ones-Mateu said.
The virus spreads well, but isn’t as deadly as SARS or MERS.
‘‘Can you imagine if we had a virus that transmits this well, like [the virus which causes Covid-19] but it kills 35 per cent of the people?’’ he said.
‘‘This is bad, but it’s not that bad, to be honest.’’
After getting an overseas laboratory test for Covid-19 working in New Zealand – with Associate Professor James Ussher – Quin˜ onesMateu was in the lab for much of lockdown.
He, Postdoctoral Fellow Rhodri Harfoot and a small team grew the virus from patient samples, turning a healthy carpet of cells in a flask discoloured and patchy.
They isolated and sequenced the RNA – genetic code – and became the only lab in the country to have the virus.
‘‘Once we got the sequence back and it was perfect, we were jumping,’’ Quin˜ ones-Mateu said.
Researchers soon wanted to collaborate on everything from cleaning and sanitising products to the Kiwi vaccine effort.
‘‘If you want to find a way to kill it, as an antiviral, or to prevent it, as a vaccine, you need to have access to the virus,’’ Quin˜ ones-Mateu said.
Everyday people trying to understand the virus have found mixed messages or conflicting research results.
But that’s normal, said University of Otago senior lecturer Christopher Gale, who saw something similar while reviewing decades of clinical trials on anxiety disorder treatments.
It’s early days for coronavirus research – much of which is being published at an earlier-than-usual stage – so we’ll have more reliable information when there are more studies to analyse collectively.
One remaining virus mystery is its animal origins – there were early links with a wholesale fish and live animal market.
‘‘It has its ancestry in bats at some point ... relatively recently.
‘‘What is not clear is whether there are other species that have been infected with this between bats and people,’’ Massey University professor of infectious disease ecology David Hayman said.
We may never know exactly how the virus got to us, he said, but the speedy spread was a red flag.
There were three big questions for University of Otago public health professor Michael Baker: how dangerous was this virus, how easily would it spread and could it could be contained?
Information from the WHO’s joint mission to China showed it could be corralled – the single most important thing he learned about the virus.
Baker started advocating a lockdown for New Zealand.
Another vital step was China mapping out the virus and making the genetic sequence public on January 12.
That’s ‘‘exquisite detail’’, University of Otago infection specialist David Murdoch said.
It’s like a code, showing which family the virus belongs to, and can be compared with others in a kind of virus library.
It was also vital for developing a laboratory test, as the virus starts with quite general symptoms.
As more doctors reported what they saw, new symptoms were added to the list.
‘‘In some ways, everything’s believable,’’ University of Otago Respiratory and Infectious Disease Physician Michael Maze said.
‘‘It’s just the more surprising it is, you need further evidence that what you’re seeing is due to the new disease rather than being noticed at the same time.’’
The virus gets into your respiratory tract – nose, throat and lungs, the Christchurch-based doctor said, causing inflammation in the lung tissue and difficulty breathing.
But doctors also saw effects in areas such as the heart and kidney; areas which also have many ACE2 receptors – what the virus uses to enter cells.
Emotionally, potential patients face the unknown too, Maze said.
It’s harder for family to visit, and nurses and doctors’ protective gear ‘‘dehumanises them a bit’’.
Even people wondering if they have coronavirus are sometimes worried it could be deadly ‘‘in a way that they maybe aren’t so much about other diseases that also can be deadly’’.
‘‘Sometimes there’s a palpable sense of relief when people find out it’s not coronavirus that’s making them very unwell.’’
‘‘If you want to find a way to kill it, as an antiviral, or to prevent it, as a vaccine, you need to have access to the virus.’’ Miguel Quin˜ onesMateu