Question

“If you had access to all the resources you wanted, be it inexhaustible finances or a limitless workforce, how would you intend to solve the predicament the world is currently facing?”

Dr. Pramod Kumar Yadava

We must appreciate the fact that viruses arise and propagate in living systems as obligate dependents (actually parasites), They quickly gain in numbers far beyond the total number of individuals of the host species that might have ever existed. Thu they quickly evolve to acquire diverse traits such as host specificity, cell tropism within the host, antibody escape and since we have started using antiviral drugs they also acquire drug resistance. High density dwelling as in cities is promotive of virus propagation and perpetuation. Thus they arise more often in urban than in rural settings barring certain exceptions. They vary in terms of fatality they cause in the host and the immunological memory that they leave behind following infection and the death toll of any viral pandemic varies accordingly. The COVID-19 seems to be spreading from person to person in the current pandemic while viruses may be transmitted by vector organisms like arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses) are transmitted by insects. The main entry ports for SARS CoV2 are buccal and nasal openings (injured skin could also offer a probable port).

With this information in background I shall like to do the following in order to resist propagation of the virus in the human population.

1. Equip each individual with simple preventive kits e.g. an inverted bag covering the entire head, eyes, nose and mouth and resting just below the neck while allowing normal breathing for the individual.

2. Cultivate etiquette of not puffing, coughing, sneezing or spitting in public space.

3. Enforce strict personal hygiene norms and avoid direct interpersonal interactions like hand shaking, hugging, kissing etc

4. Make immunopotentiating food additives from traditional food or modern medicine easily available.

5. Offer short term courses for students in basic Virology and confer skills in testing asymptomatic carriers and handling of infection.

6. Develop rapid and affordable testing protocols involving suitably labeled peptide and RNA aptamers.

7. Thorough structural studies (in silico as well as experimental) of critical molecules (mainly non-structural proteins) of the virus for its intracellular phase to arrive at rationally designed drugs to inhibit their functions.

8. Similar studies of the structural proteins of the virus (focusing on the spike protein in case of SARS CoV2) and finding immunogenic regions for use as vaccines.

9. Concurrently propose to the national bodies to approve a faster route of approval of newly developed therapeutics/ vaccines in terminally ill and volunteering patients

10. Development of necessary infrastructure to accommodate patients requiring intensive care while adopting individual isolation chambers for self-quarantine.

Activities 1-3 are preventive, 4 and 8 are prophylactic, 5 is HR related, 6 is diagnostic, 7 is therapeutic, 9 is policy related and 10 is infrastructure related strategy. In terms of time sequence most of the activities can be started with the word go although development of novel therapeutics and vaccines can be launched as R & D projects to be undertaken by technically competent groups to conclude in an years’ time and I am very confident we have the required competence in the country though ‘Virology’ as a core-subject is not widely taught or practiced, it is adaptable. I have assumed adequate budgetary allocations for each of the above activities and can work out details separately.

Dr. Malay Rana

SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA beta-coronavirus. Like other viruses, it has several molecular targets that can be useful for therapeutic design. Repurposing of FDA approved drugs is perceived to offer the fastest solution to SARS-CoV-2. Discovery of any preventive therapeutics, may it be a repurposed drug or a novel drug, requires successful inhibition of specific molecular target(s) of SARS-CoV-2 by the drug that has to hinder either the attachment of the virion to the surface of host cells or viral RNA synthesis and replication inside a host cell. Parallel to drug repurposing, identification of suitable targets and revelation of the binding mechanism for investigated promiscuous drugs, shown initially some promise and now under clinical trials, can provide useful insights to engineer better therapeutics, which we would probably like to explore.

Dr. Ritabrata Sengupta

Assumption: inexhaustible finances and a limitless workforce

1. Arrange food for everybody, so that nobody remains hungry in the lock down. (I have to include pet/feral animals as well.)

2. Increase medical facilities and make it more inclusive. (In India it is much skewed). This again includes animals as well. I have a friend, stationed at Goa, with a pet dog that is not well. He could not even go out to buy medicine for the poor creature.

3. Use the rest of the resources for developing vaccines/cure/medicine.

4. A part of the resource can be reserved for post infection recovery of the economy.