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The coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has infected more than 17,000 people around the world. Photo: SCMP / Winson Wong

How to beat the coronavirus? Re-creating it in Singapore, Australia is vital first step

  • Experts from the two countries as well as Japan have cultured the virus outside China, allowing the testing of potential vaccines and treatments
  • The development allows Singapore to learn about such viruses faster and develop corresponding contingency plans, researchers say
Scientists from Australia, Japan and Singapore have cultured the new coronavirus that originated in mainland China, taking the first steps towards developing potential vaccines as researchers worldwide race to study the deadly epidemic.

The team at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School will now use the isolated virus – cultured using clinic samples from infected patients – to research new diagnostic methods, monitor any signs of mutation, and test potential vaccines and drugs.

“This is highly significant as it will accelerate the assessment of trial vaccines’ effectiveness and lead to the development of early diagnostics tests to detect virus in asymptomatic patients,” said Danielle Anderson, assistant professor and scientific director of Duke-NUS’ containment facility.

“We are now at the stage where we are working to culture more virus stock, so we can share this valuable resource with other scientists.”

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She said isolating the virus was “very important” because it meant researchers would also be able to see which existing drugs worked on the virus.

“We can test new or existing drugs to see if they effectively kill the virus,” Anderson said. “Vaccine testing is different. An animal needs to receive a vaccine and then they develop antibodies. The animal would then be infected with this virus isolate to see if they still get sick. If they don’t get sick, the vaccine works. Vaccine development is slower than drug testing.”

The coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has infected more than 17,000 people around the world, killing 362.

Australian researchers said their cultured sample of the virus would allow them to develop better treatments and diagnostics by detecting antibodies specific to the novel coronavirus. “There are some things that are much easier to do when you have the virus,” Mike Catton, a deputy director of the Melbourne-based Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity told science publication Nature on January 29.

Anderson from Duke-NUS said culturing of the virus would allow scientists to develop new diagnostic kits for its early detection, for example in people who had not displayed symptoms.

Japan’s team of scientists has been working towards this, according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“We have already embarked on the development of a simple test kit,” Abe was quoted by Kyodo as saying on Monday. “As cases of infections in Japan are rising, it’s an urgent task to improve testing and enhance consultation services.”

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Thailand’s health ministry on Sunday said a 71-year-old Chinese woman who was infected with the new coronavirus showed dramatic improvement after she was treated with antivirals used to treat flu and HIV.

Her lab result turned negative in 48 hours, according to the ministry, and she could sit up in bed 12 hours later.

Australia has 12 confirmed cases of the virus, Singapore has reported 18, Thailand 19 and Japan has 20. Most of those who have contracted infections are travellers from Wuhan, except for two Singaporeans who had visited the Chinese city’s surrounding Hubei province.

Wang Linfa, who heads Duke-NUS’ emerging infectious disease programme in Singapore, described culturing the virus as a “crucial step forward” in responding to the coronavirus outbreak.

Scientific director Anderson said given how the virus was “easily transmitted” between people and that there was no specific treatment for it, the work had to be conducted in a containment laboratory.

Prior biosafety consultations were also held and scientists underwent specialised training to handle highly pathogenic coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).

Many have compared the new coronavirus to the Sars outbreak in 2003, which spread to more than two dozen countries and took over 700 lives.

Infectious diseases expert Leong Hoe Nam said culturing the virus in Singapore was the result of new research and medical institutions set up after the Sars outbreak, which could help the country learn about such viruses faster and develop corresponding contingency plans.

During the Sars outbreak, Leong said sequencing of the virus was done but it was slow as the technology was in its infancy and was expensive.

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“Now, if you look at China, the whole sequence of the virus was out within a matter of days,” said Leong, a specialist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital. “Singapore’s research centres will be able to make a difference but it really depends on the number of samples we can get and how fast we get them.”

Leong added that the coronavirus was “interesting” as it had tested the understanding of viruses and how to tackle them.

Typically, if one was asymptomatic, that person was deemed to have a low risk of transmitting the virus to other people, he said.

“But for this virus, you can transfer to other people, meaning you have Trojan horses in your population,” Leong added.

Leong said what Singapore had to focus on was to slow the spread when the virus hit the island nation more acutely and to ensure its health care system had the chance to process such cases.

“The situation in Singapore will worsen, it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when,” he said.

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