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GENETIC CLUES TO BETTER TACKLE SARS-COV-2 P.20 A LOOK AT COVID- 19-RELATED ETHICS
Rising COVID19 infections have resulted in genetic modifications of the virus.
Genetic clues to better tackle SARS-CoV-2
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Spike protein gene sequences could help control the novel coronavirus epidemic
Molecular level insight into the evolutionary pathways and structure of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, could help manage present outbreak and from bat SARS-like coronaviruses collected between 2011 and 2017 in Yunnan province and elsewhere in China. They discovered seven mutations resulting from positive evolutionary and future coronavirus-related epidemics, suggest researchers at King Saud University.
SARS-CoV-2 has spread exponentially, causing a global pandemic that continues to affect millions of people worldwide. The novel coronavirus is genetically similar to other human viruses that cause severe acute respiratory syndromes, such as SARSCoV and MERS-CoV, as well “Spike proteins play a crucial as bat coronaviruses, sug- role in infection, enabling gesting that it originated from a bat-borne virus. The ongoing rise in infecthe binding of virus particles and fusion with host cells.“ tions has resulted in genetic modifications, producing multiple variants of the virus that have made the epidemic difficult to control.
Led by Saleh Eifan, the team has now devised a gene sequencing approach to better understand the emergence of these variants. The researchers identified the selection pressures that have driven changes in the gene sequence encoding the spike proteins. Spike proteins dot the SARS-CoV-2 surface and play a crucial role in infection by enabling the initial binding of virus particles and their fusion with host cells.
The researchers compared three SARS-CoV-2 spike protein sequences from Saudi Arabia to those from SARS-CoV that caused the recent SARS pressure on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Five of these alter amino acids in protein domains responsible for receptor binding. These mutations could enhance the receptor’s affinity and consequently the transmissibility of the virus, as observed in the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7, known as Alpha. Despite the strong overall resemblance between SARS-CoV-2 and bat SARS-like coronavirus, their spike proteins had several variations in their individual constituent chains. The researchers found that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has a more open configuration and multiple polysaccharides that could facilitate viral entry into host cells and provide a potential target for antibodies. Furthermore, the subunit responsible for transmembrane fusion contained a site that can be cleaved by proteases and can thus be investigated as a potential target for antiviral drugs. The researchers are currently exploring ways to use these findings to develop therapeutic and preventative approaches against coronaviruses. Nour, I., Alenazi, O.I., Hanif, A. & Eifan, S. Molecular adaptive evolution of SARS-COV-2 spike protein in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences28, 3325–3332 (2021).
Travel bans, and social distancing and mask mandates have been enforced across the world since the pandemic broke out in 2020.
A look at COVID19-related ethics
A new study explores the ethical challenges posed by the pandemic for healthcare providers and medical researchers across the Kingdom
The COVID-19 outbreak forced quarantines and many restrictions. To manage the crisis, protect vulnerable communities, and curb the exponential spread of the virus, regional and local governments across the globe enforced tough measures for disease control and prevention, including lockdowns, curfews, travel bans and mask mandates.
Some of these restrictions and policies raise ethical questions related to personal freedoms, beneficence, autonomy and justice, and they also raise practical issues and contemplative questions regarding data sharing and tracking, privacy, and confidentiality, as well as challenges of preventing inequity, stigma, discrimination, and implementing the ethics of research practices.
A study published this year by KAIMRC explored how the Kingdom’s researchers and hospital workers feel about these challenges, which issues they prioritise and how they have dealt with them.
Between May and September 2020, the researchers interviewed 24 frontline healthcare providers along with COVID19 researchers and experts from different backgrounds working in Riyadh, at the King Abdul Aziz Medical City, including King Abdullah Specialized Hospital, and also the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and KAIMRC. Ghiath Alahmad, bioethicist and scientist at KAIMRC, says that the scarcity of this type of research in the Arab world prompted him and his peers to create their own survey.
Alahmad’s research confirmed that even though countries rely on different health infrastructures and navigate different cultural norms, the ethical challenges facing doctors and healthcare workers in response to COVID-19 seem to be universal.
“ The people here share the same concerns, though there are some different points of view with regard to some issues, especially related to confidentiality, and using software to track people,” he explains. Alahmad adds that while some were vehemently against any compromise regarding sensitive health data, privacy, or confidentiality, others believe that public health interests should prevail.
However, Alahmad notes that the scope of this study, as well as the data collected, remain limited. “Some very important issues have not been discussed yet, such as problems relating to the vaccination [process] itself, manufacturing the vaccine and distributing it, as well as the idea of forcing people to take the vaccine. But we are working on that,” says Alahmad.
While this survey focused on people working in the treatment and management of COVID-19, Alahmad is also planning to survey patients and their families.
Alahmad, G., et al. Ethical Challenges Related to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak: Interviews with Professionals from Saudi Arabia. Front. Med. (2021).
