Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey writes: Legon’s gene sequencing research to aid Covid-19 vaccine development
Is the strain of the Coronavirus that started the epidemic in China’s Wuhan Province the same one responsible for the current spread in Ghana? Does testing positive for COVID-19 in Accra necessarily tell doctors the genetic make-up of the virus? And what difference does knowing the wicked virus’s genetic constitution make to the world’s dire fortunes, anyway?
Prof. Kwadwo Koram, epidemiologist and immediate past director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) has been kind enough to break it all down for me. Viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have genetic materials made up of a sequence of chemical building blocks called nucleotides example, A. C, G, and T. Knowing the exact genetic sequence of the COVID-19 virus is therefore critical to mapping out its spread globally, and to understanding when and how fast changes or mutations occur.
Ghanaian scientists have for example found a greater than 92% similarity between the genetic makeup of the strain isolated in Wuhan and its counterpart in Accra, thus confirming that it is indeed the same pathogen at work.
“The findings from Legon have been shared globally. This means that efforts to develop vaccines will necessarily take account of the various strains of COVID-19 that may have been isolated in different parts of the world, thus increasing the effectiveness of those vaccines,” explained Prof. Koram. As far as vaccine development goes, the prospects for COVID-19 appear brighter than for the seasonal flu. Other scientists explain that COVID-19, for example, has a four times slower rate of undergoing mutations or changes compared to the seasonal flu, which thus makes COVID-19 more amenable and more susceptible to a vaccine intervention.
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In Koram’s words, viruses undergo these mutations basically as a survival mechanism, with mutations being spontaneous, in response to environmental factors or to drugs. While a lot of changes may happen, it is only the functional ones that scientists pay heed to in vaccine development, or in understanding the severity of diseases. Ghana’s world-class scientists, drawn from NMIMR and the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) also plan to subsequently look into the genetic sequences of the COVID-19 virus isolated from patients suffering very severe and mild forms of the disease to plan clinical management.
At 0.38%, Ghana is spending far below the one percent of a country’s GDP earmarked by the Africa Union for research and development. Research institutions like NMIMR have felt the pinch. Prof. Kwadwo Koram explains for example that at the height of the Ebola crises, Noguchi’s research work on HIV, Influenza and Tuberculosis all had to be put on hold for over two and half years in order to provide diagnostic laboratory services for Ebola, not just for Ghana, but for the entire subregion.
“At this critical moment of COVID-19 crises, we need to be able to conduct over 10, 000 tests a day to provide timely, useful information for case management and public health measures. What happened in the Ebola time is happening again when all work in the lab has come to a halt and every effort is being put on COVID-19 testing. On an ordinary day, ramping up our research capacity to the maximum, NMIMR may conduct about 3000 tests a day. Thus, providing that massive diagnostic support needed requires a significant injection of resources. Unfortunately, we always have to run into these epidemics before we start scrambling,” explained Koram.
Comparatively, South Africa is averaging about 5000 tests per day, with no backlogs and well below the 15, 000 daily testing capacity of the National Health Laboratory Service.
More critically, COVID-19 diagnostic tests need not and should not be limited to the likes of NMIMR and the Kumasi Collaborating Center for Research (KCCR) at all. In Koram’s view, with the right support, it should be possible for the Public Health Reference laboratories and the laboratories in all Teaching and Regional Hospitals in the country to run COVID-19 diagnostic tests. Even so, Prof. Koram points to positive efforts underway to retool the Gene Xpert equipment, previously used to test for Tuberculosis, to test for SARS-CoV-2.
This move is expected to significantly increase Ghana’s testing capacity nationwide by late April or early May 2020. Ghana thus has the opportunity to ramp up its diagnostic capacity nationwide with the added advantage of freeing the likes of Noguchi to focus on their advanced research mandate.
The last word, of course, is one of praise for the Ghanaian scientists, in whom the country is well pleased for a timely and relevant contribution with far-reaching implications for humanity.
The author is the Executive Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI), Africa Region.
Sodzi_tettey@hotmail.com
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