The raising of the threshold of attention for l‘avian flugiven that there is a fear (and there is no shortage of worrying signs) of a possible jump in species.
The anxiety linked to what happened in has just disappeared Congowith what was defined as disease “X” and was then downgraded by the WHO itself to one form of malaria linked to other contingent situations linked to the appearance of respiratory symptoms and poor nutritional conditions. And we continue to carefully monitor the evolution of Covid variantswith the virus now profoundly mutated from the original Wuhan strain in a process of continuous mutations.
In short, we will increasingly have to get used to a world that must be seen in the logic of “One Health”, with the need for increasingly efficient and rapid control and monitoring systems of what happens on the invisible planet. What to do? An answer comes from research just published on Naturewhich explains how an innovative is being developed study and monitoring model capable of identifying the potentially more “dangerous” variants of viruses and bacteriaincluding those that cause influenza and Covid for the former, as well as whooping cough and tuberculosis to remain in the bacterial sphere.
The family tree strategy
The study was conducted by experts from the University of Cambridge (first author Noémie Lefrancq, who carried out the work at the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge and now works at ETH Zurich, lead author Henrik Salje from the Department of genetics from the University of Cambridge).
As a note from the university explains, we start from samples of infected human beings to allow the real-time monitoring of pathogens circulating in human populations and enable rapid and automatic identification of vaccine-evading bacteria. Furthermore, thanks to this strategy, they can also be identified bacterial variants who develop resistance to antibiotics, also allowing targeted treatments in this sense.
The approach employs genetic sequencing data to provide information on genetic changes underlying the emergence of new variants. In practice this strategy aims to create real family trees of bacteria and viruses to identify new variants almost automatically, reducing the risk of wasting time. in fact you can get to have a sort of automatic identification of any genetic variants of pathogens, capable of providing information not only on the characteristics of the strain but also on the possibility of diffusion in humans. Indeed, according to what experts report, the method could be used to predict the variants destined to dominate the microbiological landscape.
The first test results and why there are mutations
The researchers used their new technique to analyze samples of Bordetella pertussisthe bacterium that causes whooping cough, identifying three new variants circulating in the population that had not previously been detected. In a further examination the focus was on samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosisthe bacterium that causes tuberculosis. It showed that they are spreading two variants with antibiotic resistance.
“The approach will show quickly which variants of a pathogen are most concerning in terms of the potential to make people sick. This means that a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible – reports in the Salje University note. If we see one rapid expansion of an antibiotic-resistant variantthen we could change the antibiotic that is prescribed to people infected with it, to try to limit the spread of that variant.”
These are just examples. But these two observations indicate how the genetic components of the pathogens vary, to make the strains under investigation more efficient in diffusion. What is worrying are the mutations that allow you to evade the immune system’s defenses, even if you are vaccinated. Knowing quickly what is happening can allow you to respond equally quickly, reducing the risks of development antibiotic resistance and the “escape” of viruses from control systems.
