Assam: RMRC lab in Lahowal successfully isolates Covid-19 virus strain

Guwahati: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today announced that a team of scientists at the Regional Medical Research Centre, NE region (RMRC) in Lahowal, Dibrugarh, has finally been successful in isolating the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus.

Sarma said that the RMRC in Lahowal has been able to separate the strain of the COVID-19 virus. "NIV Pune was able to separate the strain of coronavirus and on that basis, the development of a vaccine is in the works. Similarly, RMRC Lahowal has separated the strain which has opened up avenues to conduct many studies that will be specific to Assam.

The Health Minister then stated that the RMRC has been able to isolate the SARS-COV2 COVID-19 virus in its biosafety-level 3 laboratory, which marks the prerequisite for conducting any research towards the development of vaccines and drugs for COVID-19.

RMRC, Dibrugarh is only the 3rd government Lab in the country after NIV (ICMR Lab), Pune and CCMB (CSIR lab), Hyderabad, and 4th lab overall after Bharat Biotech (Pvt Biotechnology lab at Hyderabad), to isolate the virus in tissue culture. "In layman's term the significance of the COVID-19 virus isolation by the team of scientists from RMRC, Dibrugarh, is that live and viable SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 virus) can now be produced in the laboratory in abundance and as and when required", the RMRC said in a statement.

"The A2a clade is now the most dominant clade across the world including India. In fact the world over, the SARS-CoV-2 virus strains circulating differs by less than 0.3%. So, the strain variations till now in different geographical regions of the world should not pose a problem for vaccine development", the RMRC added.

The scientists of RMRC, Dibrugarhhas isolated the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) in VERO-CCL81 cell line in the BSL-3 level lab available at their institute. They used an immortal cell line VERO-CCL81 (derived from Kidney epithelial cell lines from green African monkey) which expresses the important ACE2 receptor needed by SARS-CoV-2 for cellular entry.

Enlightening about this significant development, the health minister, Sarma, lauded the medical fraternity of the state for keeping number of deaths to a minimum, despite the strain of the virus, that has claimed countless lives globally, being the same. He further added that a vaccine can now be developed based on these findings.

Sarma also informed that that moderate level symptomatic cases have now been detected in Guwahati city, the new coronavirus epicenter in the state. "When moderate level symptomatic cases are detected, various kinds of aggressive treatments come into the equation", Sarma said.

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