14 new crown vaccines from here to the clinic
——Remember my country's new crown vaccine animal model team
Author: reporter Zhan Yuan, reporter Jiang Cheng
At present, the number of people who have been vaccinated against the new crown vaccine in my country has exceeded 1.2 billion, which has built a solid immune barrier for my country's epidemic prevention and control, and safeguarded the lives of the people.
However, few people know that in the journey of human beings fighting against diseases, animal models are the first hurdle to understand diseases and one of the "touchstones" for overcoming diseases. With animal models, we can scientifically understand diseases and find drugs. target for testing drugs or vaccines.
At the beginning of the new year, the reporter walked into the Institute of Medical Laboratory Animals of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute of Animals") and visited the research team that developed the world's first animal model of new coronary pneumonia and successfully created a "touchstone" for my country's new crown vaccine .
Completed animal experiments for more than 50 new crown vaccines and more than 130 drugs
"At present, we have completed the evaluation of more than 50 kinds of new crown vaccines and more than 130 kinds of new crown drugs deployed by the state, and 14 kinds of vaccines have entered the clinic from here, including the inactivated vaccines of Beijing Kexing and Sinopharm Zhongsheng." Located in Panjiayuan, Beijing The Institute of Medical Laboratory Animals, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences is a Chinese-style building.
Here, the reporter met the leader of the team, Professor Qin Chuan.
This is a heroic and gentle female scientist, her naturally curly hair braided over her shoulders, wearing a gray velvet suit.
According to her introduction: "Most vaccines such as adenovirus vaccines, inactivated vaccines, recombinant new coronavirus vaccines and many foreign vaccines that have been announced in China have completed animal experiments at the Institute."
Sitting opposite the reporter, Qin Chuan recalled that "fast" and "accurate" were the beliefs she and all team members shared at that time.
"The sooner the animal model is established, the earlier the vaccine and the drug will come out."
Rewind memory to the beginning of the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia.
At that time, the country listed animal models as one of the five main directions of attack.
Qin Chuan clearly remembers that on December 31, 2019, she and her team were ordered to undertake a series of scientific and technological research projects such as "New Coronary Pneumonia Animal Model Construction".
"It only took 7 days, from January 23 to 29, 2020, when the virus was obtained, we successfully established a transgenic mouse model of humanized new coronavirus receptors." Qin Chuan said.
In this thrilling scientific research process, each node is based on a short "day" - on February 14, 2020, just 9 days after obtaining a high dose of the virus, they established the world's first new crown Experimental monkey model of pneumonia.
So far, they have finally succeeded in creating a "touchstone" for new crown vaccines and drugs.
At this time, experts from other countries are still at the stage of discussing ideas and solutions.
At the relevant seminar held by the World Health Organization, when the team of the Institute of Dynamics demonstrated the animal models that had been developed in my country, and introduced the experience and methods in detail, some foreign experts exclaimed: "Unbelievable." The team's new coronary pneumonia animal model has been adopted internationally and has become a common method for the development of new coronary pneumonia animal models in the world, as well as a general standard for vaccine and drug evaluation.
Since then, with the help of precise animal models, the Institute of Dynamics team has confirmed the causative pathogen of new coronary pneumonia, confirmed that the virus invades the host receptor, and revealed the infection, pathogenic characteristics and transmission routes.
17 years of non-stop fighting against infectious viruses
In the opinion of researcher Liu Jiangning, deputy director of the Institute of Animal Research, the animal model of the new coronavirus is short on time and the task is urgent.
The reason behind the rapid development of the new coronavirus animal model by the Institute of Animal Science and Technology is hidden in the emergency animal model research process spanning 17 years.
17 years ago, in the face of the SARS virus, Qin Chuan led a team to tackle key problems and successfully created the first SARS animal model.
In the past 17 years, the team of the Institute of Animal Science and Technology has been persevering and has taken the lead in developing animal models in the domestic and foreign epidemics such as avian influenza, hand-foot-mouth disease, influenza A, H7N9, and Zika, which has effectively promoted clinical treatment and epidemic control.
It is the long-term scientific research and talent accumulation that enables this team to quickly "fight" when faced with the "blocking war" of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, build a bridge between the flying laboratory and the clinic, and make the research and development of new crown vaccines and drugs into the clinic. Change the way.
At the beginning of the new year, the hour hand points to the third year of new crown technology research, and the team is still busy.
Can the new crown vaccine resist "Omicron"?
This is the research currently being carried out by the Institute of Dynamics.
The battle lasted for two years, and the team of the Dynamic Research Institute never took off the "battle shirt".
Recently, they successfully isolated the Omicron variant for the first time in China, and they are studying and evaluating the resistance of Chinese people to Omicron after vaccination.
"The task given by the state to our animal model research team is very arduous, and we need to answer a series of questions with animal models." Liu Jiangning said.
"Can existing vaccines be against mutant strains? How long will the vaccine's protection last? Can bivalent or multivalent vaccines be against mutant strains? How safe and effective are mixed and sequential vaccine products of different technologies? Can they be successfully developed? Vaccines to block transmission? What is the pathogenesis of critical illnesses? Can we screen and reserve effective drugs for critical illnesses..." These issues that people are most concerned about are just another "hard battle" that this scientific research team is fighting. .
Gan and the virus "companion", only for drug safety
As one of the laboratories with the highest experimental danger level in China, although the Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory of the Institute of Dynamics is behind the war epidemic, it is also densely covered with "gun smoke".
"Experimenters have to frequently come into contact with viruses, infect animals, dispose of excrement, take chest X-rays on animals, and perform dissections. It is extremely dangerous." Qin Chuan likened this place to the most dangerous battlefield.
Here, researchers are exposed to highly concentrated viruses, and the infected animals are emotionally unstable, and are easily scratched and bitten by the experimenter, causing infection.
Because of this, the family members of this team all have one thing in common.
"They don't care how much your salary is, whether you are tired or not. The only thing they worry about is safety. Some family members will even collapse because they answer the safety call a few minutes late." Liu Jiangning said.
In order to alleviate these worries, whenever there is a new experimental operation, Qin Chuan, Liu Jiangning and researchers Deng Wei, Bao Linlin, Xu Yanfeng and other seniors guide young people hand in hand, passing on their experience and skills.
"We will shoulder the historical responsibility, promote more medical breakthroughs from '0 to 1', and contribute to people's medication safety, national biosafety, and the development of an independent biomedical industry." Qin Chuan said, "From Lin Qiaozhi, From the older generation of scientists such as Gu Fangzhou and Badenian to our generation of medical science and technology workers, the needs of the country are our beliefs.”
After years of accumulation and the efforts of the entire team, the Institute has established the world's largest genetically diverse animal resource bank and the largest domestic human disease animal model resource bank, with more than 1/3 of the world's genetically diverse animals resources, which will provide a solid guarantee for the independent research and development of animal models in my country.
(Reporter Zhan Yuan, correspondent Jiang Cheng of this newspaper)