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Article: Boehringer - more zoonotic disease threats lie in wait
21 May 2020
This article is taken from our Animal Pharm dated
20/05/20.
A vaccine specialist at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health
believes there are many zoonotic viruses that are yet to be
discovered.#
Jean-Christophe Audonnet - the firm's senior director in
vaccines R&D - believes zoonotic outbreaks, such as the
COVID-19 pandemic, "might become more frequent in the future".
He noted: "Urbanization, economic development and climate change
are fostering human contact with wild fauna. Many unknown viruses
lurk in the wild, particularly in mammals. Quite a few of them have
the potential to jump to species such as humans or livestock. In
the past 30 years, more than 20 pathogens have made the leap to
humans."
Dr Audonnet suggested designing efficient veterinary vaccines
can be a good precursor to the development of human vaccines, as
both share many technologies.
This is one of the aims of the Zoonoses Anticipation and
Preparedness Initiative (ZAPI) project consortium, which features
scientists from Boehringer's animal health business. ZAPI aims to
identify countermeasures and processes applicable to COVID-19 and
similar emerging diseases.
Dr Audonnet has been coordinating ZAPI over the last five years,
as the private-public consortium collects research on coronaviruses
affecting animals.
He said: "Animals and humans share the same space on our globe
and often 'share' the same germs - the zoonotic agents. Our project
has this very unique characteristic. It combines both animal and
human health, linked through innovative technologies.
"Our goal has been to set up tools, platforms and processes that
could be on standby, ready for the production of vaccines and
monoclonal antibodies in case of an outbreak.
"Our research uses three different prototype models of diseases
that occurred in the recent past and are zoonotic in nature - the
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, the Schmallenberg
virus that affects livestock and the Rift Valley fever virus that
affects both humans and livestock. The starting point is when the
virus has been isolated or when the viral genetic code has been
deciphered, which can be done today a few days after the first
clinical case is discovered.
"We search for a fragment of the virus that can trigger an
immune response and can be used to build a vaccine. ZAPI is trying
to accelerate this process with a combination of specific software
programs, databases and computer processing. With that, we can
predict the smallest stretch of a viral envelope glycoprotein that
will still trigger a strong immune response.
"The team found out this approach may lead to a swift
identification of the best subunit of virus for the next stage (for
all three viral models used in the ZAPI project). Then, they need
to find a vehicle that could efficiently transport any such subunit
to the immune system into the body."
Boehringer stated: "The team has been dedicated to developing a
platform to hopefully open new treatment paths for newly emerging
viruses. The explosion of SARS-CoV-2 represents a painful example
of the importance of having countermeasures ready in advance."
ZAPI's work recently received a further European Commission
grant to conduct specific COVID-19 research. The consortium is also
funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative. To date, ZAPI has
received over €22 million ($24 million) in funding.