Faculty from University of Hyderabad develops potential vaccine for coronavirus

HYDERABAD: Dr. Seema Mishra, faculty of the Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has come up with potential vaccine candidate for treating coronavirus.

She has designed “potential vaccine candidates, called T cell epitopes, against all the structural and non-structural proteins of novel coronavirus-2 (2019-nCoV) for experimental testing. These vaccine candidates are small coronaviral peptides, molecules which are used by cells to trigger an immune response to destroy cells harboring these viral peptides. Using powerful immunoinformatics approaches with computational softwares, Dr. Seema Mishra has designed these potential epitopes in a way that can be used to vaccinate entire population,” the University said in a statement.

The findings have been shared with the scientific community so that experimental testing can be carried out.

“Right now, best defense to prevent further nCoV infections is social distancing. Vaccination will take some time due to the need for further work on these candidate epitopes. We are hopeful that our computational findings will provide a cost- and time-effective framework for rapid experimental trials towards an effective nCoV vaccine,” the statement notes.

So far India has reported 902 cases of coronavirus infection. 20 people have died so far.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared a 21-day-long complete lock-down for the entire country till April 14 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The lock-down will come into effect from 12am tonight. In his second address on the unprecedented menace, the Prime Minister said that all people should obey the government’s instruction for their own safety. Otherwise, the country will move backwards by 21 years, he warned. Citing the crises currently faced by Italy and the USA due to the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus Modi said, “I appeal to all our citizens with folded hands not to come out from their homes as the situation is very very alarming. We will fight against the pandemic and win against it. But for that your co-operation is necessary. We must break the virus chain.”

The PM addressed the nation at 8 pm on Tuesday for the second time on the pandemic. On Thursday last week, he addressed the nation on the issue for the first time. He addressed the nation for the second time when the coronavirus pandemic claimed the lives of 10 people and infected more than five hundred people across the country. In a serious tone, the PM said that all people except those who are employed in emergency services like health-care, media, police, fire etc., should stay indoors till April 14,2020 to help contain the outbreak of the dreaded virus. “Everybody should act responsibly. The future of the country depends on you. You may treat the lock-down as a curfew,” he added.

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