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- Vaccine information: Ginzburg named the conditions for creating a vaccine against metapneumovirus
Vaccine information: Ginzburg named the conditions for creating a vaccine against metapneumovirus
Russia needs to create a bank of prototype vaccines against topical infections, such as the metapneumovirus (hMPV) currently spreading around the world, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, told Izvestia. In his opinion, the pathogen is of particular concern, as it leads to severe consequences. According to Brazilian specialists, the virus is capable of causing pneumonia even in patients without serious comorbidities. And Russian virologists note that the genome of the pathogen is continuously mutating and this can lead to both a new epidemic and weakening of the infection.
Prototype vaccine against metapneumovirus
To protect against metapneumovirus and other dangerous infections in Russia, it is necessary to create a bank of prototype vaccines against their pathogens, which are capable of causing pandemic complications, the director of the Gamaleya Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg, told Izvestia. According to him, now the institution is not working on the creation of a drug for hMPV, as the organization has not received the relevant task. However, the virus is indeed alarming.
- The main upshot of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the country would do well to establish a system by which there are prototypes of all vaccines against infectious diseases that could in principle cause pandemic complications. Including against metapneumovirus. Not because it is widespread, but because it has recently started to cause a very severe disease," Alexander Gintsburg said.
People who are brought to hospitals with severe pneumonia have begun to isolate this virus, although previously there were no such symptoms. This is explained by the fact that against the background of a general immunodeficiency caused by COVID-19, the population has become very sensitive to those pathogens, which previously easily coped with, explained the specialist.
Theoutbreak of metapneumovirus infection began in China in late December. According to local authorities, between December 16 and 22, 2024, hMPV was found in 6.2% of positive tests for respiratory diseases and caused 5.4% of hospitalizations. This is higher than the rates of COVID-19, rhinovirus and adenovirus. Cases have also been identified in Kazakhstan (30 sickened), Uzbekistan, India, Italy and other countries.
Rospotrebnadzor said that specialists of the agency are closely monitoring the epidemiological situation in connection with the growing number of cases of metapneumovirus in China. Russian medics have reagent kits for quick and accurate diagnosis of acute respiratory infections, including hMPV, it added.
The virus causes the usual symptoms of ARVI: cough, runny nose and fever. However, infection can lead to the development of severe pneumonia. The pathogen is most dangerous for infants, the elderly and people with lung diseases and weakened immunity. There is no specific treatment or vaccine for metapneumovirus yet, so symptomatic therapy is used, the agency said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that there is no threat of a pandemic of metapneumovirus infection in the world and there is no question of a health emergency. This was announced by Hungarian Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Minister Péter Szijjártó after a telephone conversation with WHO Director General Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus. However, medics from different countries face challenges in treating the infection.
Strains and severity of metapneumovirus symptoms
Brazilian experts describe the clinical case of a 68-year-old patient who developed severe out-of-hospital pneumonia caused by hMPV. Although he was immunocompetent and had no significant comorbidities. Before medics identified the specific pathogen causing the complication, the patient was prescribed general antibiotics. However, the disease continued to develop, caused hypoxia, and hospitalization was required. Already in the hospital the patient was detected hMPV, prescribed antiviral drugs and achieved his recovery. The authors of the article believe that the test for metapneumovirus should be made mandatory in clinical practice, and to prevent such complications need vaccines against this pathogen.
According to Sergei Voznesensky, associate professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases at PFUR, metapneumovirus is one of the pathogens that most often cause acute respiratory infections. And the outbreak in China fits well into the annual outbreaks that occur when the cold season begins. In such conditions, the elderly who have comorbidities, including those of the respiratory system, will be more severely ill. The spread of hMPV is most likely due to its mutations.
- Periodically, new viruses appear that spread and cause more disease compared to the previous reporting period. They can be called variants, sub-variants, but there is a drift of nucleic acid, drift of genetic material. And some changes are always happening," he said.
According to Chinese research, six strains of metapneumovirus are prevalent in the country. The most common variants are A2b, B1 and B2. They account for 43.42%, 23.86% and 22.51% of all infections, respectively. However, the relationship between the severity of symptoms and the strain of the pathogen has not yet been established.
Predicting the likelihood of a variant of metapneumovirus that could cause a pandemic is very difficult, as it depends on many factors. There are chances of both the development of such a super strain and the fact that it will simply disappear, says Mikhail Bolkov, a researcher at the Institute of Immunology and Physiology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- The rate of mutations depends on the structure of the virus genome. They are very simple, so they mutate easily. Due to this, they interact with the entire animal world. However, this simplicity leads to errors and the appearance of non-viable copies. Such a virus can die before it even leaves the cell. But a very strong variant can also appear. This will also be influenced by the peculiarities of the organism of carriers, in this case humans, and the environment. It is impossible to predict this," he said.
It took scientists about a year to find out the mutation rate of the spike protein coronavirsua. Now it is necessary to conduct the same research on metapneumovirus, the specialist is sure.
