The exotic animal’s genome could point to possible treatment options for COVID-19 in humans
Frontiers
Similar to how a smoke detector sounds off an alarm, certain genes sense when a virus enters the body, alerting of an intruder and triggering an immune response in most mammals. But, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Immunology, pangolins – mammals which resemble an anteater with scales, lack two of those virus-sensing genes. The finding is significant because while pangolins can be carriers of coronavirus, they appear able to tolerate it through some other unknown mechanism. Understanding their evolutionary advantage may point to possible treatment options for coronavirus in humans.
Researchers focused on pangolins because the exotic animal may have transmitted the virus to humans last year, creating the interspecies jump required for the current COVID-19 pandemic to take hold (bats have also been identified as possible agents of infection). To obtain their results, they analyzed the genome sequence of pangolins and compared it to other mammals including humans, cats, dogs, and cattle.
“Our work shows that pangolins have survived through millions of years of evolution without a type of antiviral defense that is used by all other mammals,” says co-author Dr. Leopold Eckhart, of the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. “Further studies of pangolins will uncover how they manage to survive viral infections, and this might help to devise new treatment strategies for people with viral infections.”
In humans, coronavirus can cause an inflammatory immune response called a cytokine storm, which then worsens outcomes. Pharmaceutical suppression of gene signaling, the authors suggest, could be a possible treatment option for severe cases of COVID-19. Eckhart cautions though that such a remedy could open the door to secondary infections. “The main challenge is to reduce the response to the pathogen while maintaining sufficient control of the virus,” he says. An overactivated immune system can be moderated, Eckhart says, “by reducing the intensity or by changing the timing of the defense reaction.”
While the study identified genetic differences between pangolins and other mammals, it did not investigate the impact of those differences on the antiviral response. Scientists don’t yet understand how exactly pangolins survive coronavirus, only that their lack of these two signaling genes might have something to do with it. Eckhart adds that another gene, RIG-I, which also acts as a sensor against viruses, should be studied further as it could defend against coronaviruses. The study offers a starting point to better understand coronavirus’s characteristics, the body’s response, and the best options for treatment.
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Notes to Editors
Please link to the original research article in your reporting: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.00939/full
Corresponding Author’s Institution: Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Frontiers is an award-winning Open Science platform and leading Open Access scholarly publisher. Our mission is to make research results openly available to the world, thereby accelerating scientific and technological innovation, societal progress and economic growth. We empower scientists with innovative Open Science solutions that radically improve how science is published, evaluated and disseminated to researchers, innovators and the public. Access to research results and data is open, free and customized through Internet Technology, thereby enabling rapid solutions to the critical challenges we face as humanity. For more information, visit http://www.frontiersin.org and follow @Frontiersin on Twitter.
You don’t need pangolin.
Dr Didier Raoult’s protocol of HCQ ( which reduces inflamatory reaction ) and antibiotic azithromycin to prevent pneumonia of other microbic infections is proving useful at his hospital 17 deaths of 3200 patients.
https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/covid-19/
The TDS struck in USA are still blocking its use because Trump said “maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t”.
So far nothing bad has happened in Italy and Spain after greatly relaxing confinement and starting back to work:
There is a noticeable change in Spain where the drop in daily cases seems to have stalled at a manageable 1000 new cases per day, having peaked at over 8000 per day.
Change in Italy is imperceptible in daily graph, but just detectable in this graph of rate of change:
European casualties appear to be concentrated in the countries with high concentration of Afro-Asian ethnic population. Germany appear to be an exception although the non-native population there is mainly from Balkans and Turkey.
http://www.vukcevic.co.uk/EuropeCV.htm
It is possible that genetic make up might be an important factor which needs more detailed investigation. Deficiency in the vitamin D3 assimilation due to a darker skin colour, lack of BCG vaccination in the countries of origin, or some other factors related to diet etc, all need to be considered.
“Hey, this cure for Covid-19 developed from Pangolin works!”
“Great news! Any side effects?”
“Besides the scaly skin and the patient’s tongue growing to about a foot long?”
While the study identified genetic differences between pangolins and other mammals, it did not investigate the impact of those differences on the antiviral response.
one has to ask?
why the hell not?
Of course pangolins are not responsible for this pandemic. But learning what makes the invulnerable may lead to a vaccine or cure.
Referring to both Greg and Vuk’s comments and also looking at the Worldometer tables: although no part of the world (except N Korea) is immune to this virus, those parts of the Indian subcontinent, SE Asia , Indonesia and East Africa, where curries are the most common form of main meal seem to be less affected, judging by cases or deaths per /million of population, than those of us used to a more Western style of food.
Could it be that the spice tumeric, whose curcumin component is known to have anti inflammatory , and allegedly anti tumor properties, may help protect individuals from this virus ?
I have a second motive for posting which I am trying to sneak under the radar of moderation: weeks of toil in the garden during lockdown have increased arthritic and muscle pain and tumeric supplements are said to help give relief .
Given the vast range of life experiences of vistors to this site has anyone found these supplements – which are quite expensive – to be of any use in giving relief.
Understanding their evolutionary advantage may point to possible treatment options for coronavirus in humans.
*may* or *may not*, either way – wild eyed speculation. Not a shred of factual information to support the claim.
and this might help to devise new treatment strategies for people with viral infections.”
I thought we just read this.
Pharmaceutical suppression of gene signaling, the authors suggest, could be a possible treatment option
More wild speculation.
Getting down to cases:
Moderating the inflammatory response has been around since Aspirin. Lots of ways to do it now. Attempting to mess with gene signaling seems to be the hard (and expensive) way around.
All in All: 100% content-free EurekAlert! posting.
It’s reassuring that there are still good scientists out there. Of course, I knew there were but there was so little excess space in the media for non-climate developments and the constant barrage of end-of-world hype made scientific inquiry look irrelevant. Even medical researchers were moving over to the dark side probably because of competion for funds. The Team Climate ones eclipsed and reduced respect for science as a whole.
This is a wonderful story. Real science always seems to have a large counterintuitive aspect, like this one, which makes me feel Dr. Eckhart is onto something special here. The bat genome seems like an important next thing to look at. He mentions the genome of other mammals and the inference is that they are unlike the pangolin. The question is therefore, how come dogs and cats and others are not infected?
“Pharmaceutical suppression of gene signaling, the authors suggest, could be a possible treatment option for severe cases …”
..of cytokine storms, which are the main problem for humans. Greg above bingoed HCQ. “Dr Didier Raoult’s protocol of HCQ” – 17 deaths out of 3200 cases in his hospital and its likely most if not all of them had comorbidities that were possibly the main issue.
When is there going to be a revolt against what must be the TDS Democrat establishment in medical institutions. Look Docs, Covid is also taking out the climate establishment, so don’t count on that when the pandemic is over.
“Similar to how a smoke detector sounds off an alarm, certain genes sense when a virus enters the body, alerting of an intruder and triggering an immune response in most mammals.”
What you seem to be describing here could also be in part what is known as ‘quorum sensing’, that occurs among bacteria and viruses too can also have this kind of social life. Up-regulating and down-regulating/modulating each other and more via ‘quorum sensing’.
Scratching the surface of the subject in this random link.
From: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01880-6
“The secret social lives of viruses”
“Scientists are listening in on the ways viruses communicate and cooperate. Decoding what the microbes are saying could be a boon to human health”
As for Pnagolins…Just another opinion.
The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV2 — Special Report — J.C. ON A BIKE
3,445 views
•Mar 28, 2020
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmSCMb8Nds4
Please send me tons of money . I will study Pangolins and probably not find much useful , but
I will enjoy my expensive new house and lifestyle . I will buy a Learjet, so I can fly all over the world and also pretend to find the cure for Global Warming.
Thanks Suckers !!!!!!!
A pangolin is nocturnal and has a hell of a sunscreen in the form of an armor plated skin of scales. That should keep the sunshine away. A bat is nocturnal and hides from the sunshine in caves and other dark places in the daytime. Both carry the virus in question. Any relevant association/correlation?
Anyway, if the human body was infected with the virus and the body did not react to it, what would happen? In other words what would be the impact without an immune response?
“Fighting the inflammatory process
He also explains that the cytokine storm is the body’s immune state in which it begins to produce various types of substances that on the one hand are designed to fight the inflammatory process, but on the other can also intensify the inflammatory response. So, as a consequence, the patient’s condition can get much worse.
– Knowing about the occurrence of such a situation, we reach for Tocilizumab – a drug that counteracts the inflammatory storm arising as a result of virus infection – says prof. Życińska. He points out that Tocilizumab is an antibody that blocks an important substance that enhances the development of inflammation – interleukin 6.”
The Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy recommend tocilizumab be considered as an off-label treatment for those with COVID-19 related acute respiratory distress syndrome. It states this because of its known benefit in cytokine storms caused by a specific cancer treatment, and that the cytokine storm may be a contributor to mortality in severe COVID-19.[36]
On 11 March 2020, Italian physician Paolo Ascierto reported that tocilizumab appeared to be effective in three severe cases of COVID-19 in Italy.[37] On 14 March 2020, three of the six treated patients in Naples had shown signs of improvement prompting the Italian Pharmacological Agency (AIFA) to expand testing in five other hospitals.[38] Roche and the WHO are each launching separate trials for its use in severe COVID-19 cases.[39]
In March 2020 a randomized study, at 11 locations in China, which should conclude by 31 May 2020, started to compare favipiravir versus tocilizumab versus both.[40]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocilizumab
The most cursory review of reality would show that you could not possibly be more wrong.
Natural selection is the opposite of random.
Please study biology instead of regurgitating the preposterous mendacities of professional creationist liars.
The fact of evolution is observed every day in every way, everywhere. But nowhere moreso than among viruses.
Please quit embarrassing yourself.
There is no such thing as “Intelligent Design”, only Idiotic Design. Please see my previous comments of transposons and viruses. Kindly also stick to science here and eschew false religion. Thanks!
Evolution of immune systems:
Evolution of Immune Systems From Viruses and Transposable Elements
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00051/full
Virus-derived sequences and transposable elements constitute a substantial portion of many cellular genomes. Recent insights reveal the intimate evolutionary relationship between these sequences and various cellular immune pathways. At the most basic level, superinfection exclusion may be considered a prototypical virus-mediated immune system that has been described in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. More complex immune mechanisms fully or partially derived from mobile genetic elements include CRISPR-Cas of prokaryotes and the RAG1/2 system of vertebrates, which provide immunological memory of foreign genetic elements and generate antibody and T cell receptor diversity, respectively. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the contribution of mobile genetic elements to the evolution of cellular immune pathways. A picture is emerging in which the various cellular immune systems originate from and are spread by viruses and transposable elements. Immune systems likely evolved from simple superinfection exclusion to highly complex defense strategies.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00051/full
Evolution of Immune Systems From Viruses and Transposable Elements
Virus-derived sequences and transposable elements constitute a substantial portion of many cellular genomes. Recent insights reveal the intimate evolutionary relationship between these sequences and various cellular immune pathways. At the most basic level, superinfection exclusion may be considered a prototypical virus-mediated immune system that has been described in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. More complex immune mechanisms fully or partially derived from mobile genetic elements include CRISPR-Cas of prokaryotes and the RAG1/2 system of vertebrates, which provide immunological memory of foreign genetic elements and generate antibody and T cell receptor diversity, respectively. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the contribution of mobile genetic elements to the evolution of cellular immune pathways. A picture is emerging in which the various cellular immune systems originate from and are spread by viruses and transposable elements. Immune systems likely evolved from simple superinfection exclusion to highly complex defense strategies.
So – pangolins seem to lack a genetic-immunological apparatus which over-reacts to an agent that would otherwise be a non-threat, and causes a self-destructive storm which destroys the animal’s tissues and eventually causes death – from the immune system, not from the external agent. So the smart pangolin survives where others succumb to pointlessly triggered self-destruction.
I wonder if the pangolin is a model of what a country would be like without a left wing self-hating subculture and media?