scholarly journals COVID-19: Vaccine and antimicrobial resistance what are the global implications?

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-53
Author(s):  
Jared Robinson ◽  
Alexandra Leclézio ◽  
Indrajit Banerjee

Antimicrobial resistance is a worldwide and highly quantified risk to global health and is more prevalent than resistance developed in vaccines as both antimicrobial resistance and vaccine resistance develop in different settings and because of alternate mechanisms. Vaccines act as a preventative measure and allow the immune system to kill any pathogen in the initial phases when the load is relatively low. This circumvents the replication of the pathogen and thus prevents the formation of mutations and furthermore resistance which is attributed to those mutations. Mutations in the target and or binding sites of a said therapeutic regime confer resistance more often in antimicrobials than they do vaccines. The alteration of a vaccines binding site does not confer resistance as a vaccine produces a wide spectrum of antibodies due to multiple epitopes on the said antigen, the remaining antibodies are thus still protective. In antimicrobials however, the drug targets a specific site and is not dynamic and thus if a mutation of the site arises, the drug efficacy is reduced. Although vaccine resistance is less quantified it may also pose a substantial risk to Global health as currently evident with the COVID-19 pandemic. The current global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has developed a host of mutations which are displaying a degree of resistance and reduced efficacy to the vaccines. This reduced efficacy and resistance of the mutations to current vaccination programmes, poses a risk to global health. It is vital for new vaccines to be synthesized to specifically be active against the variants. It is likely that the synthesis and development of new vaccines to counter new variants as they arise will be an ongoing process. It is evident in future that new vaccines to the mutations in COVID-19 may have to be developed as they are for the seasonal influenzae virus.

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 688-691
Author(s):  
Lindsay A. Wilson ◽  
Susan Rogers Van Katwyk ◽  
Isaac Weldon ◽  
Steven J. Hoffman

AbstractAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the defining global health threats of our time, but no international legal instrument currently offers the framework and mechanisms needed to address it. Fortunately, the actions needed to address AMR have considerable overlap with the actions needed to confront other pandemic threats.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026327642098160
Author(s):  
Steve Hinchliffe

Rather than ‘superbugs’ signifying recalcitrant forms of life that withstand biomedical treatment, drug resistant infections emerge within and are intricate with the exercise of social and medical power. The distinction is important, as it provides a means to understand and critique current methods employed to confront the threat of widespread antimicrobial resistance. A global health regime that seeks to extend social and medical power, through technical and market integration, risks reproducing a form of triumphalism and exceptionalism that resistance itself should have us pause to question. An alternative approach, based on a postcolonial as well as a ‘post-colony’ approach to health and microbes, provides impetus to challenge the assumptions and norms of global health. It highlights the potential contribution that vernacular approaches to human and animal health can play in altering the milieu of resistance.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin Duncan ◽  
Justin H. Chang ◽  
Maxim N. Artyomov ◽  
Karine Auclair

AbstractAntimicrobial resistance is a global health crisis offering little reprieve. The situation urgently calls for new drug targets and therapies for infections. We have previously suggested a different approach to treat infections, termed bacterio-modulation, in which a compound modulates the bacterial response to the host immune defense. Herein we show that monocytes infected with Salmonella enterica spp. Typhimurium can be cured using non-antimicrobial compounds that resensitize the bacterium to itaconate, a macrophage-derived antimicrobial metabolite. We propose that this represents a novel strategy to treat infections.


This book critically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach. Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The chapters explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast. This book sets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.


Author(s):  
Angelo Spinello ◽  
Andrea Saltalamacchia ◽  
Alessandra Magistrato

<p>The latest outbreak of a new pathogenic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is provoking a global health, economic and societal crisis. All-atom simulations enabled us to uncover the key molecular traits underlying the high affinity of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein towards its human receptor, providing a rationale to its high infectivity. Harnessing this knowledge can boost developing effective medical countermeasures to fight the current global pandemic.</p>


Author(s):  
Luigi Leonardo Palese

In 2019, an outbreak occurred which resulted in a global pandemic. The causative agent of this serious global health threat was a coronavirus similar to the agent of SARS, referred to as SARS-CoV-2. In this work an analysis of the available structures of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease has been performed. From a data set of crystallographic structures the dynamics of the protease has been obtained. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the structures of SARS-CoV-2 with those of the main protease of the coronavirus responsible of SARS (SARS-CoV) was carried out. The results of these studies suggest that, although main proteases of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 are similar at the backbone level, some plasticity at the substrate binding site can be observed. The consequences of these structural aspects on the search for effective inhibitors of these enzymes are discussed, with a focus on already known compounds. The results obtained show that compounds containing an oxirane ring could be considered as inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 756-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditi Kaushik ◽  
Manish Kaushik ◽  
Viney Lather ◽  
J.S. Dua

An emerging crisis of antibiotic resistance for microbial pathogens is alarming all the nations, posing a global threat to human health. The production of the metallo-&#946;-lactamase enzyme is the most powerful strategy of bacteria to produce resistance. An efficient way to combat this global health threat is the development of broad/non-specific type of metallo-&#946;-lactamase inhibitors, which can inhibit the different isoforms of the enzyme. Till date, there are no clinically active drugs against metallo- &#946;-lactamase. The lack of efficient drug molecules against MBLs carrying bacteria requires continuous research efforts to overcome the problem of multidrug-resistance bacteria. The present review will discuss the clinically potent molecules against different variants of B1 metallo-&#946;-lactamase.


Author(s):  
Andrei G. Felice ◽  
Leonardo N. Q. Santos ◽  
Ian Kolossowski ◽  
Felipe L. Zen ◽  
Leandro G. Alves ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Minna Lyons ◽  
Gayle Brewer

AbstractPrevious studies have demonstrated that there is an increase in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) during times of crisis (e.g., financial, environmental, or socio-political situations). The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented global health and financial tragedy, but research is yet to establish exactly how the situation may impact on IPV. The present study investigates victims’ experience of IPV during lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a qualitative thematic analysis of 50 discussion forum posts written by victims of IPV. Of these, 48 forum posts were written by female victims of male perpetrated violence. All forum posts were obtained from the popular online platform, Reddit. We identified four themes associated with IPV victims’ experiences during lockdown and the global pandemic: (i) Use of COVID-19 by the Abuser, (ii) Service Disruption, (iii) Preparation to Leave, and (iv) Factors Increasing Abuse or Distress. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on those living with IPV, often increasing the severity of IPV experienced. The experiences of those affected by IPV during this period inform interventions and the guidance and support provided to IPV victims during times of crisis.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1063
Author(s):  
Shinuk Kim

Drug repositioning is a well-known method used to reduce the time, cost, and development risks involved in bringing a new drug to the market. The rapid expansion of high-throughput datasets has enabled computational research that can suggest new potential uses for existing drugs. Some computational methods allow the prediction of potential drug targets of a given disease from a systematic network. Despite numerous efforts, the path of many drugs’ efficacy in the human body remains unclear. Therefore, the present study attempted to understand drug efficacy by systematically focusing on functional gene sets. The purpose of this study was to carry out modeling to identify systemic gene networks (called drug paths) in drug-specific pathways. In our results, we found five different paths for five different drugs.


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