This pandemic caused by Covid-19 Coronavirus has been dragging for a long time now. I honestly thought by 2022 it would have become history. It is kinda embarrassing for humanity that we haven't beaten this virus and gone back to normal life yet. With all the collective knowledge and advancements in technology and medicine, tackling this challenge while not easy but could have been achieved in a reasonable amount of time, I thought.
This global challenge did show some of the flaws we all collectively have. Lack of transparency in its origins, possible cover-ups, not being ready with supply and hospital beds, politicizing the matter beyond comprehension, companies protecting their patents and profits, and all around confusion displayed that we are haven't advanced enough to efficiently address major issues like this. And we talk about possible alien attacks. lol.
Politicians demonstrated how useless they are, companies have demonstrated their greed, media as always demonstrated they care about drama rather than providing a genuine journalistic work. I find it stressful to even think about this matter and how crazy it has been. But life goes on, people adapt. This is the new normal, I keep hearing. I prefer the old normal. When is it going to happen? It is almost like asking when will bitcoin hit 1 million dollar price. It will happen eventually, but probably not anytime soon.
Scientists at the Washington State University may have discovered the possible Achilles' heel for respiratory viruses, like Covid-19. Is this real? There is a light at the end of the tunnel, after all. Feel free to read the full article At SciTechDaily here. It is an interesting read and provides some interesting information how Covid-19 like viruses can be stopped.
They have identified viral protein NS2 found in respiratory viruses as the main culprit. According to their studies if a virus doesn't have this protein, human immune system can destroy the virus as a champion before any complications may happen. So it seems like NS2 is the main weapon of the respiratory viruses like covid.
The key problem is that virus multiplications cause exaggerated inflammation, which leads to clogging the airways and make breathing difficult. The viruses achieve this by breaking the immune system defense mechanisms and using them to multiply. According to their study NS2 protein is removing the defensive armor of Beclin1 and this allowing the replication of the virus within the cell and spreading to other cells causing damage. Immune system responds to this damage and this leads to exaggerated inflammation.
It looks like cellular protein, Beclin1 is the first line of defense against the virus. But it shows weakness against NS2 protein. By disabling NS2 and its ability to modulate the cell's immune defense mechanism, we might be able to stop this virus attack. If a proper therapeutic is developed that targets NS2, we may have a solution to stop covid-19 and also use the same methodology against other respiratory viruses.
I am not a doctor, nor am I a medical expert. I am just happy there are doctors, medical experts, scientists still working on finding a solution to this pandemic. If this study is correct, we may defeat this pandemic for good and go back to old normal sooner than we thought. Maybe?
Be safe and healthy.