Two years after Ebola ravaged parts of West Africa, the deadly virus in 2018 was making a comeback in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston sprang into action, reverse engineering the construction of a new vaccine and delivering 7,500 doses of it to the central African country for widespread use, all within 72 hours.

It was, in the words of Ben Raimer, interim president of UTMB, a proud moment for the university system, a collaborative effort that yielded life-saving results. Raimer cautioned, however, against the unrealistic expecations the Ebola success may have created for university researchers now grappling with the nuances of the far more complex novel coronavirus.

Were not a 72-hour virus maker here at UTMB, Raimer said. Weve done it one time for Ebola, but its not likely for this virus until we get a better understanding on how it functions in its various forms.

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Public health experts generally predict that a coronavirus vaccine will take much longer and wont be ready for at least 12 to 18 months from the first known infection in late December. Whilemore than 20 vaccine candidates are in development, most are in the early stages, well before clinical trials. Uncertainty over the timeline has led to an unquenchable thirst for any morsel of good news regarding progress researchers have made in understanding how the virus attacks humans.

Scott Weaver understands this reality better than most. As the director of UTMBs infectious disease research programs, Weaver is tasked with helping manage nearly two-dozen projects related to the coronavirus, from macro initiatives like vaccine and antiviral treatment to more nuanced efforts such as why the virus affects people who smoke or vape more acutely.

For now, vaccine development is moving at a slower pace than Ebola, Weaver said, though he is hopeful that a previously developed SARS vaccine will prove effective. That vaccine, developed by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and UTMB researchers, effectively protected mice against SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, the pneumonia-causing virus from the same family a coronavirus that spread in the early 2000s. The vaccine never progressed to human testing because manufacturing of it wasnt completed until 2016, long after SARS had burned out.

Weaver noted two key challenges to completing work on the SARS vaccine: the genetically-altered laboratory mice used to test this vaccine had to be recreated from scratch; and funding sources, particularly from commercial interests, are hard to come by.

UTMB has cleared one hurdle. The transgenic mice embryos used for the original vaccine were recently implanted into female and male mice, and the first offspring were born several weeks ago. Of course, even after these mice are used to test vaccine candidates, those vaccines will have to be tested on non-human primates before the FDA will consider permission for clinical trials in people.

But even if UTMB does not win the vaccine arms race, the universitys coronavirus research has already made a significant difference in understanding the viruss complexities.

We have here three virologist faculty scientists who focus their work on coronavirus, so we were well prepared to gear up very quickly to do research on this virus, Weaver said.

Indeed, at the outset of the viral outbreak, UTMB developed a reverse genetic system to manipulate the virus genome. The Galveston National Laboratory at UTMB, a high-security biocontainment lab, was one of three labs in the country to get the coronavirus isolate in February after the Centers for Disease Control worked on the first virus sample in Washington state and cultured it in Atlanta.

Pei-Yong Shi, a professor of human genetics at UTMB, led this effort, which allows scientists to essentially recreate the virus from scratch.

We can understand the mutations and history of the virus. We will be able to manipulate the virus, to understand which regions are causing the disease so we can make vaccines and therapeutics, Shi said.

The UTMB genetic system played a vital role in helping develop badly needed diagnostic tests. The universitys World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses stockpiled the viral RNA the genetic material needed to optimize tests for federal approval.

There was a time period in late February where we were literally the only laboratory in the world providing these RNA samples for diagnostic (test) development, Weaver said. A lot of the big companies that you see now are starting to scale up diagnostics - like LabCorps and Quest and many of the big hospitals including some in Houston and here in Galveston - we provided that critical RNA to them so they could get their tests up and running as quick as possible.

One of the primary projects capturing the attention of UTMB scientists is testing antiviral drugs to treat the symptoms of the coronavirus, Weaver said. The drugs currently being tested were developed for other viral infections or non-infectious diseases, such as remdesivir, which was used to combat Ebola infections.

Both President Trump and the World Health Organization have highlighted remdesivir as a promising coronavirus treatment, though clinical trials are still ongoing to determine how effective the drug can be. UTMB has a clinical trial set up in the coming weeks to test remdesivir in Galveston County coronavirus patients.

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In the middle of an outbreak like this, there are going to be so many people who are hospitalized and eligible for these clinical trials that well learn very quickly whether (remdesivir) has efficacy or not, Weaver said. I think thats really the best prospect for an improvement in patient care in the near future.

Tapping into funding sources to continue vaccine research is a bigger problem. One of the major differences between Ebola in 2018 and coronavirus that contributed to how quickly UTMB was able to develop a vaccine was the sustained funding for Ebola research. Besides the SARS outbreak in the early aughts and MERS in 2012, coronaviruses typically dont attract the same interest.

Its much harder to get funding, especially commercial interest, in the coronavirus vaccine, Weaver said. Unfortunately, that means we dont have as much to start from. There were some vaccines that were developed. They never went very far down the pipeline towards clinical trials, but at least were not starting completely from scratch.

But for as much work is being done behind the scenes in the race to cure and treat the coronavirus, Weaver said the immediate outcome and toll of this pandemic will be determined by public health measures such as social distancing.

One person on average transmits the virus to 3 or 4 additional people and if one of those is a high-risk person, they may die, if one of those is a healthcare worker, they may spread it to many more people, Weaver said. I just hope that everyone takes this very seriously.

nick.powell@chron.com

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