Using coronavirus vaccine technology to fight the Black Death

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Using coronavirus vaccine technology to fight the Black Death

Matthew Clark explains why the bacteria responsible for the plague never disappeared and how modern technology could help us eradicate it for good.

The plague is one the most deadly and infamous diseases in all of history. We know today that it is caused by a gram negative (double membraned) bacteria called Yersinia pestis, but during the black death epidemic of 1346-1353 its causes were far more mysterious.

The French king Philip VI blamed the plague on pestilence in the air (miasma

theory) caused by the conjunction of three planets. The Catholic Church decreed that this pestilence was a punishment from God and instructed everyone to pray and self-flagellate. Some religious scholars believed that the plague was a form of rapture. They advised people not to seek medical treatment as this disease had come to secure them a place in paradise.

By the time people learnt how to slow the spread of disease (sanitation and isolation of infected individuals) it had already killed a third of Europe: an estimated 200 million people.

It would be over 500 years until the true cause of the Black Death would be revealed, and that theory wouldn’t be fully proven until 2010! In 1894, a microbiologist named Alex- andre Yersin discovered some nasty bacteria. He observed them in rats and theorized that they could have acted as a vector for disease during the black death pandemic.

Five years later, another scientist named Paul-Louis Simond refined this model to how it is best known today: the true vectors for Yersinia pestis bacteria are the Oriental rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) that live as parasites on the poor rats that get all the blame.

In 2010, archeological samples from black death victims were prepared for genome sequencing, proving that this bacteria was indeed responsible. In the following years more extensive studies were performed all around the world showing the true sordid history of this pathogen.

Human remains in bronze age graves tested positive for Y. Pestis plasmids in their teeth and victims as far back as the Neolithic era were identified in 2018. This could provide evidence that an early version of the black death was responsible for the rapid collapse in population observed ~3500BC (the Neolithic decline) although this is hotly debated.

Efforts to create a vaccine for this disease stretch as far back as its isolation by Yersin himself. He used heat-killed whole cells on animal models with encouraging results. Treatment for Bubonic plague was reasonably effective but it did not stop the far more deadly form Pneumonic plague from developing.

Other scientists made slight improvements over the following decades but it soon fell out of fashion as antibiotics became more cheap and effective. During the Vietnam war, The USA created a formaldehyde-killed whole cell vaccine. Unfortunately it was rather ineffective as it caused frequent systemic over reaction and side effects. The protection was not long term enough nor did it protect against Pneumonic plague.

More modern studies on are using specific proteins from Y. Pestis to create a vaccine such as the F1 capsule, and V1 virulence antigens. But hang on, what’s the point of curing the plague? Hasn’t it gone away by now – I thought only medieval peasants got that? Unfortunately the plague has no intention of going away. All over the world, several species of animals are acting as ‘reservoir hosts’ – keeping the pathogen alive in a feeble dormant form.

Between 2010-2015 there were 3248 worldwide cases of plague and 584 deaths. This may sound trivially low but more recent outbreaks indicate that this disease may become more dangerous and widespread. For example, the 2017 Madagascar epidemic from August to November infected 2119 people and killed 171.

Phase 1 vaccine trials in the summer of 2021 showed promising results and the £500,000 funding provided by Innovate UK is sure to help accelerate this effort to provide a safe and effective vaccine to vulnerable populations all around the world.

This vaccine is based on the ChAdOx1 adenovirus viral vector platform used in the Oxford coronavirus vaccine. Professor Sarah Gilbert, architect of the AstraZeneca Vaccine, has said: “We’ve got the cake and we can put a cherry on top, or we can put some pistachios on top if we want a different vaccine, we just add the last bit and then we’re ready to go.”

Editor observations:

Matthew Clark

The question of how life evolved on earth is hotly debated, but all answers must start at the same place: where did the biological molecules come from? A problem central to this is the chicken and egg relationship between DNA and proteins. DNA codes for the structure of proteins, and proteins are necessary to build the DNA letters and string them together. Surely, there must have been some inorganic way of synthesizes these molecules before modern life emerged?

This week we came one step closer to finding an answer. Research on meteorites from Japan, Lead by Yahiro Oba, has found every single nucleobase necessary for the genetic code. Previous studies had only detected the ‘purine’ half of the code: A and G. But now it has been proven that the ‘purine’ half, T and C can emerge from inorganic reactions in space.

Image: Conmongt / 636 images via Pixabay License.