Tamaida Shimera on corona-virus - Viruses antibiotics and vaccines

Tamaida Shimera

A long standing "truth" among people and doctors in general is that: "Antibiotics do not work on virus-infections". This was true until a new type of virus came along - the retrovirus in the form of Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) and some years later a successful medical therapi/antibiotic emerged for HIV - reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs).

Viruses are very primitive lifeforms. They rely entirely on the enzymes and organelles inside the host cell that it infects. These enzymes help the virus replicate/ make a copy of itself,"replication", and helps it produce the proteins it needs, "translation". So if you would want to hinder the multiplication/infectious process of such a virus by blocking the enzymes that it requires you would also hinder vital functions that the host/human cells need to live. So before HIV became a infectious agent for humankind there was essentially no antibiotics/chemoterapeutics that could be used.

Until the 1950's there was consensus among scientists that RNA only was made from DNA and never the other way around. A virus that infected sheep in Iceland and caused a deadly disease called Visna (means wither away/wizen) was able to convert its genetic material(RNA) into (DNA) that subsequently was spliced into the unfortunate sheeps DNA. The process was reversed. The virus produced an enzyme that converted its RNA into DNA, called reverse transcriptase. The converted RNA was spliced into the host's (sheep's) DNA. Since the copy-process went in the opposite direction from what was known until then, a new class of viruses was established called retro-virus ("retro" is latin for backward). As mentioned above the HIV virus works this way.

Reverse transcriptase is not an enzyme that exists and has no function in the normal human biology. It is an enzyme that is produced from the retroviruses' RNA. So contrary to the other enzymes that viruses rely on for functioning /living this enzyme can be blocked without causing harm to the human host.

Medication that block the enzyme are called reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs). They were very successful in treating HIV/AIDS that had a motality rate of close to 100 % before their introduction.

Generally when someone contracts an infection , the immune-cells in the body detects the surface structure of the infectious agent (e.g. a virus,bacterium or fungus) and determines that it is foreign to the body. The immune system then removes it by antibodies or cellular killer action. The infected host, after it has recovered, will retain a memory of the surface structure of the offending agent. If the same microorganism infects at a later stage the infected host will eliminate the microorganism in a more effective way.

Vaccines is based on the principle that an organism that has been exposed to an infectious agent is better at fighting it a second time. Vaccines contain either dead material from the infectious agent or it contains a weakened version of the agent (in this case always a virus).

Some viruses has the ability to easily change its surface at the time of a later infection. When the virus "wears a new coat" it is not recognized as an earlier infectious agent and the immune system is not helped by earlier memory to eliminate it. Influenza viruses and corona viruses has this ability.

Other viruses that has infected humans through the ages are childhood viral infections like mumps, measles and rubella. Viruses like like smallpox. and polio can give serious infections that some times are lethal or can result in sequelae. These viruses do not have this ability to change its coat, therefore host immunity is most often lifelong after the initial exposure either by infection or vaccination.

There is no reason to try to develop a vaccine against a retrovirus since a very effective medicine already exists and in the case of COVID-19 a vaccine's effect would be as uncertain as for the flu-vaccine. RTIs has been tolerated well by the probably 100 million plus patients (official prevalence numbers are in many cases estimates and uncertain) that has used it during the last 30 years. Of course for the COVID-19 the goal is to prevent the virus from storing a blueprint of its genome in the hosts DNA so the treatment should be prophylactic or very early onset and last only for a week/days.

Added 05.07

The mRNA vaccine made by the firm Moderna

The mRNA vaccine made by the firm Moderna is based on a very dangerous concept and is not a traditional vaccine. A traditional vaccine is essentially a protein from a virus that is injected into the body. As mentioned above,the human host's immune-system indentifies it as foreign and develops antibodies and cellular immunity against it. In this case you inject genetic material that instead codes for the protein. An artificial spherical membrane/envelope is made that contains the mRNA strands inside it. The envelope containing the mRNA is unspecific, unlike a live virus' surface that has special surface-proteins that only will bind to one type of human cell. The mRNA containing sphere will enter/ be endocytosed by any cell not only respiratory epithel. The mRNA will attach to the host cells enzymes and start production of a viral protein. Every type of cell that produces it will be recognized as foreign and be attacked and killed by the hosts immune system, not only cells in the lungs. Again it is a substance that will weaken the body because all/most of the cells that has "swallowed" it (the viral messenger RNA ,mRNA) will have the viral protein it has produced on its surface and will be targeted by the immune system. This mRNA technique has never been tried before in humans. It is more of a deadly poison than a therapy and people should absolutely avoid it. It is incredible that dr. Anthony Fauci supports this pseudo-vaccine concept and purportedly has financial interests in the company producing it, Moderna.

Quinine and chloroquine as antiviral agents?

There has been much speculation recently wether these medicines could be an effective antiviral therapy. Quinine was imported to Europe from South America in the late 16th century for its beneficial effect against fever and shivering during infections. It has been used in almost 400 years against malaria (that is caused by a socalled protozooa and not a virus). After the colonisation of Africa and India it was used extensively as a prophylactic medicine against Malaria by colonialist Europeans. It is more than reasonable to deduce that people who used it would have observed a reduction of the incidence of influenza if it had any effect. No history of this exists. Anyway it will not prevent the COVID-19 to insert a blueprint of itself in the hosts DNA.

Remdesivir

Is Remdesivir a good therapy candidate? It has been approved since April/May by the FDA for use in severe cases in USA and also in for instance Japan. It should work in suppressing the virus. Remdesivir blocks the action of the enzyme that facilitates replication of RNA-viruses, i.e. RNA dependent RNA polymerase aka RNA replicase. It will fail in preventing the virus making a blueprint of itself in the infected persons' DNA from which viruses will be regenerated at a later stage making a new infection. The copying of the COVID-19 genome into the host/human cells DNA as a DNA-replica (blueprint) must be prevented at all cost and only reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs) like Lamivudine can do that.

The treatment that works and is essential for COVID-19, because it has been converted into a retrovirus in a laboratory, is Lamivudine or other reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs).

Translation. The making of a sequence of amino-acids i.e. a protein from RNA. Example of one of the human cell processes that an infecting virus relies upon and that cannot be blocked without harming/destroying the host/human cell.