IPortuguese researchers are developing a medicine against a wide range of viruses to face a possible new pandemic, according to biochemist Miguel Castanho, who defends a surveillance network for coronaviruses like the one that exists for the flu.
“We have to have antiviral medicines that are active against very diverse viruses, but we also have to know how to do what we did before, which was to develop vaccines, but we have to do it in a more effective and more targeted way. In Portugal, projects are underway, either one aspect or the other”, said Miguel Castanho.
The expert was speaking to Lusa on the eve of marking one year since the World Health Organization declared the end of the international public health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
To mark the date, the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), which leads the NOVIRUSES2BRAIN project, a European consortium that is trying to develop a very broad-spectrum antiviral medicine, brought together three biochemists, Miguel Castanho, Cláudio Soares (researchers) and Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, former Minister of Education, in a conversation, available on IMM’s YouTube, in which they spoke about the lessons learned and the possibility of a new pandemic.
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Asked by Lusa whether countries are prepared for a new pandemic, Miguel Castanho, principal researcher at IMM, said they are “better prepared” than they were before.
“Before, we were practically forgotten about pandemics. At this moment, for ordinary citizens it is almost as if they did not exist, because our lives have already resumed the rhythm and concerns that existed before the pandemic”, but researchers continue to work on understanding what is happening. passed and “in preparation and readiness for the next pandemic.”
The researcher exemplified with “the problem” of bird flu caused by the H5N1 virus in which there is “great vigilance and a series of measures” to try to prevent it from spreading among humans.
Miguel Castanho said that H5N1 surveillance is implemented by a flu surveillance network, arguing that the same mechanism should be created for coronaviruses.
“These measures that are taken to try to avoid pandemics already draw on the experience of the past pandemic”, but it is necessary that, if a new virus emerges, everyone knows what everyone is doing, such as hospitals, civil protection, the population.
In the hands of researchers, is the preparation of antiviral drugs with “such a broad spectrum that they can be active against a series of existing viruses” and, probably, for future viruses that will be evolutions of the current ones.
The Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB) is also developing a project led by its director and researcher, Cláudio Soares: “We are leading, together with IMM and other teams from Portugal, Spain and the rest of Europe, two projects” which aim to create procedures that allow the development of fast-acting and effective biopharmaceuticals against a new disease, he said at the meeting.
Covid-19, which emerged at the end of 2019 in a Chinese province, has claimed seven million lives worldwide, estimates the World Health Organization.
Miguel Castanho highlighted the fact that, among many attempts, vaccines were successful, avoiding millions of deaths.
“If there were no vaccines and other drastic measures were not taken [como o confinamento] it was a huge death toll. It would be comparable to the Spanish flu”, which is estimated to have decimated 2% of the world’s population.
The researcher highlighted that, reading what was left behind and what was learned from the past, one has to believe that the countries were capable, that they have already done a lot.
“Now, we can do it better and faster and that’s what we have to prepare for, because the only thing we know is that every day that passes is one less day for the next pandemic, which we don’t know when it will be. That’s part of nature We have no idea if it’s next week, if it’s next year, if it’s in 10 years or in 100”, he said.
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