Australian Scientists Are One Step Closer To COVID-19 Vaccine

With the rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, researchers around the world are racing to find a vaccine. At the moment, the novel Coronavirus has infected over 120,000 people with 4,630 deaths.

Even though many have fully recovered, they can still be infected again if they have close contact with the virus. So the only solution besides washing hands regularly and maintaining personal hygiene will be a vaccine that can prevent people from being infected.

Researchers are putting their efforts into finding a solution. And it looks like these Australian scientists might have discovered something.

Australian-based biotech company Biotron has a library full of small molecule compounds that are being tested against COVID-19. Their secret weapon is to target the proteins of the virus called viroporins.

The researchers at Biotron were actually the first to discover that the Coronavirus’ E protein was viroporin. The library of Biotron is filled with 30 compounds for research of coronaviruses. These compounds range from human coronaviruses causing mild, cold-like symptoms to SARS coronavirus responsible to the 2003 outbreak.

If you don’t know, coronaviruses are viruses that are normally found in animals. SARs coronavirus was linked to civet cats. The Coronavirus originated from Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Most of the first victims were either vendors or buyers. And according to researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the genome sequenced taken from seven patients were reportedly 96% identical to coronavirus from bats.

The compounds of Biotron can reduce previous coronaviruses’ levels by 90% to 100% in infected cell cultures (like SARS. MERS). Testing these compounds could help us come up with a combination that works for novel Coronavirus.

This compound library is assisting Professor SS Vasan at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. Professor SS Vasan recently succeeded in mass-producing the novel Coronavirus strain in a sufficiently large number for clinical trials of medicine.

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