The Pandemic Race

How do you win against an “invisible” opponent in a life-or-death race?

COVID-19 Infographics by Vince Paraunda

The world is under a pandemic, caused by a novel coronavirus known as the 2019 n-CoV, or COVID-19. According to the World Health Organization, there are 26,468,031confirmed cases of this novel virus (as of September 6, 2020, 6:19 PM), with 871,166 deaths recorded (“Coronavirus Dashboard,” 2020). In the Philippines, it is evident that cases of COVID-19 are exponentially increasing due to poor prioritization of public health & safety, as well as lack of health & research funds and facilities. A deadly respiratory virus, COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a strain of virus discovered in Wuhan, China back in 2019. It attacks a person’s respiratory system, consequently promoting the development of serious illnesses, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer (“Coronavirus,” 2020). The Earth is now in a continuous fight with an enemy not seen by the naked eye.

On the progressive combat with the pandemic’s deadly weapon, researches had emerged, aimed to counterattack the effects of this lethal pathogen. These pathogens, specifically known as viruses (viral information resources under siege) are simple genes, made up of RNA and DNA. They infect cells by taking over the cell’s machinery – replication, transcription, and translation. They bind to a specific receptor (a cell that responds to external stimuli) in a cell, then duplicate to create new copies of themselves within the cell. The continuous replication of viruses makes the cell burst (lysis), leading to cell death.

What is the importance of knowing how COVID-19 spreads?

In biochemistry, enzyme kinetics is the study of chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes. For some context, chemical bonding governs enzyme kinetics as substrates (substances that undergo metabolism in our body) “chemically bind” to a specific enzyme to undergo catalysis. As an example, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a sexually transmitted retrovirus that affects millions of people until today. If left untreated, it may lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), severely making the body’s immune system weak, and prone to diseases. Casidey and Frey (2001) studied how HIV infects the body and explained that HIV attaches itself to HIV protease, an enzyme responsible for the production of new HIV virus particles. In addition, HIV needs HIV integrase, another viral enzyme needed for the duplication of the virus inside the host cell. Further research led to the creation of HIV “drug inhibitors.” The drugs inhibit these enzymes and prevent HIV from reproducing inside the body (Campbell & Farrell, 2003).

In relation to HIV treatment studies, researches show that the novel coronavirus attacks cells rich in angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). ACE2 is a prerequisite enzyme needed for the entry of COVID-19 virus into the cell (Wadman et al, 2020). This enzyme “hijacks” the cell’s machinery (replication, transcription, translation) and produces multiple copies of the virus in an instant. A study conducted by Li et al (2020) showed that the low expression of ACE2 lessens damage to organs due to the inhibition of signal pathways that may aggravate them (Li et al, 2020).

How does COVID-19 affect us?

COVID-19 affects multiple organs in the body, primarily the lungs, leading to pneumonia. Other organs that may also be affected include the brain, eyes, nose, lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, and intestines (Wadman et al, 2020). The ability of the novel coronavirus to affect multiple organs at once is a serious threat to the immune system, a serious enemy of our bodies. Hence, the importance of vaccine application and research takes place. Vaccines “train” the immune system by releasing certain molecules to trigger an immune response (“How Vaccines Work,” 2020). They contain weakened or killed viruses, or isolated proteins, that teach the body’s immune system to attack said weakened viruses, resulting in the production of so-called “memory cells.” These memory cells then bind to the virus and trigger a rapid immune response that helps fight further infections (Nelson et al, 2008). This may seem to be a simple description, but further vaccine research is needed to create a “standard” vaccine. This is to alleviate the side effects, such as higher temperature that may kill other healthy cells, caused by its application.

Should further studies be done on the adherence of memory cells to viruses, we may have an idea on how they could be “competitive enough” to adhere, or stick to, the COVID-19 virus, thus eradicating the virus itself. Competitive, in a way that these memory cells will be a signal for these vaccines to start killing the virus inside our bodies. As of the moment, no vaccine is tested to be 100% effective for COVID-19. Furthermore, studies will not push through without the proper support and prioritization of public health, research, and safetyIn light of this realization, the importance of budget allocations on science and research, specifically vaccine research, must be emphasized. All efforts to eradicate the virus would be wasted when uneven treatment of public health and safety continue to persist in society. We must be scientists who are not only fueled by the desire to learn about the COVID-19, but also encouraged to help save the human race by fighting COVID-19 with the help of science and research.

We are in a race, where either the coronavirus invisibly kills us, or we eradicate the coronavirus from the human race. Right now, we need “the cure” for COVID-19 (that is funded, tested, and proven by science and research). We need to finish this pandemic race, be in first place, to prevent fatalities and save lives, thus, returning everything to what they used to be, the normal that we used to preserve.