Portuguese researchers are developing a drug against a wide range of viruses to face a possible new pandemic, according to biochemist Miguel Castanho, who advocates a surveillance network for coronaviruses like the one that exists for influenza.
“We have to have antiviral drugs 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 targeted way. Projects are underway in Portugal, both in one area and the other,” said Miguel Castanho.
The expert was speaking to Lusa on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring an end to 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 drug – 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 talked about the lessons learned and the possibility of a new pandemic.
Asked by Lusa if the countries are prepared for a new pandemic, Miguel Castanho, IMM’s principal investigator, said that they are “better prepared” than they were before.
“Before, we practically forgot about pandemics. Now, for the average citizen, it’s almost as if it hadn’t happened, because our lives have returned to the rhythm and concerns that existed before the pandemic,” but the researchers are still working on understanding what happened and “preparing and being ready for the next pandemic.”
The researcher gave the example of “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 to humans.
Miguel Castanho said that H5N1 surveillance is being carried out by a flu surveillance network, and argued that the same mechanism should be created for coronavirus.
“These measures that are being taken to try to prevent pandemics have already drawn on the experience of the past pandemic,” but in the event of a new virus, everyone needs to know what everyone is doing, such as hospitals, civil protection and the population.
In the hands of the researchers is the preparation of antiviral drugs of “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: “Together with the IMM and other teams from Portugal, Spain and the rest of Europe, we are leading two projects” aimed at creating procedures to develop fast-acting biopharmaceuticals that are effective against a new disease, he said at the meeting.
Covid-19, which emerged at the end of 2019 in a Chinese province, is estimated to have caused seven million deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Miguel Castanho highlighted the fact that, among many attempts, vaccines have been successful and millions of deaths have been avoided.
“If there were no vaccines and if other drastic measures [such as lockdowns] weren’t taken, there would be a huge death toll. It would be comparable to the Spanish flu,” which is estimated to have wiped out 2% of the world’s population.
The researcher emphasized that by looking at what has been left behind and what has been learned from the past, we have 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 until 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’ time or in 100 years’ time,” he said.
