53424 / 53425 Infectious Disease Control Assignment Sample 2024
1.0 Summary
From the end of 2019, the world has seen the effect of the “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2)” in a very deadly way. The virus has affected a large number of the population, and the fight against the diverse has started in early 2020. The virus has a nature that allows the disease to spread more quickly, affecting more people. Due to its nature, the “World health organization (WHO)” has identified the virus as a pandemic situation. It was spreading so quickly that it became a global decrease in a few months.
Many countries in the world have initiated mandatory quarantine and citywide lockdowns to restrict the spread of the virus. As of the present moment, the virus has infected more than 174 million people resulting in 3.7 million deaths worldwide. Countries such as the United States, India, Brazil, France Italy were affected the most in terms of the total spread and the resulting deaths related to the virus (Malabadi et al. 2021). The virus spreads through the air and enters the human body, primarily through the breathing process.
The virus has seen the effect varies cells in the human organ, such as “lungs, kidneys, heart, and intestine”. Their effects on the cells damage this organ which ultimately leads to “multiple organ dysfunction syndromes”. The specific variant which resulted in the epidemic of the COVID-19 was responsible for the respiratory illness, which has a very structural and genetic similarity with the SARS- CoV-2 virus. Due to the concerning factors, the development of the control measures in terms of viruses to create immunity in the humans against the virus has begun to mitigate the issues.
The exploration of nanotechnologies in the career design for vaccines becomes extremely necessary. At the present state, it can be seen that the developed vaccine against the virus works in the different age groups differently. It also needs to be mentioned that one of the specific effects of the virus was seen to be different for different age groups. It can be said that due to the immunity degradation of people with ages, the effects of the damage caused by the virus were much more severe compared to less aged people (Malik et al. 2021).
Similarly, when developing the vaccine against the virus, the immunity response of peoples of different ages was kept in mind. It can be seen that in the present stage of the vaccine development of the virus, the vaccine is developed in different age groups coding to thor immunity response and capacity. In the present research topic, the project is trying to develop a vaccine against the SARS- CoV-2 Virus universal for all ages to develop a more effective and efficient treatment delivery process against the virus.
The primary goal of the present project is to understand the immune responses and deliver a vaccination system that can be applied universally in all ages to introduce many effective vaccination schemes for the general public (Ghaebi et al. 2020). In this project, the research will identify the relevant ideas and develop the experimental design to fulfil the following purposes
2.0 Aims and Objective
Aim
The primary aim of these project is the development of an effective treatment delivery process for the SARS-CoV-2 virus employing conducting experimental analysis of developing a vaccine based on nanocarriers which could be applicable for people across all ages and be able to reduce the spread by generating the required immunity response by the carrier.
Objective
The primary objective of this study is:
- Understand the process of infection by the SARS-COV-2 virus by the conduction of literature review.
- Understand the functions of nanocarriers in the development of the vaccination process against the virus.
- Understanding the effects of the virus and the immune response of people of different ages.
- Developing the required experimental methodology for the development of the effecting treatment delivery process in case of this virus.
- Development of proper timetable and cost analysis for the said experiments
- Explore and evaluate the potential challenges and opportunities of these research subjects.
3.0 Methods and Study Design
Based on the scope of the research on the present topic, the project will require a primary analysis based on the experimentation of the proposed methodologies in the design of the required vaccination methods against the SARS- CoV-2 virus. In the proposed methodology, the project will follow a theoretical, experimental design to analyze the different aspects of the selected project topic (Talukder and Chanda, 2021). According to Enayatkhaniet al. 2020, in the process of reverse vaccinology, the following studies and methods are used.
The first step of the required methods will be the identification of the target virus itself to compact the research into a more focused state and create specific methods to be analyzed against the specific virus only. Then “the amino acid sequences of proteins” of the respective virus will be collected. This specific information will be collected from the governmental web portals. Then the research will identify the most important “antigenic proteins” which play a significant part in the relocation and the virulence of the proposed virus in the study.
This protein plays a critical role in the functionality of the virus (García et al. 2021). The following step of the research methodology will be focused on the prediction of the “T-cell epitopes focusing on the HLA class I and II.” The research is required to select the variable sources of HLA, which vary with the population. In order to sequence the scanning of these epitopes, “screening server RANKPEP” will be used. The following process will be the identification of the “B-cell epitopes by analyzing the amino acid sequence”.
The research will use the “physicochemical properties and the frequency of occurrence” to identify the B-cells. The experiment then will create “epitope-rich domains” by joining the B-cell and T-cell epitopes with AAA linkers. “VaxiJen v2.0 server” for the protein prediction of the recombinant chains. For the experimental design, the physicochemical parameters analyzed for the experiments are “molecular weight, theoretical pI, amino acid composition, atomic composition, extinction coefficient, estimated half-life, instability index, aliphatic index and grand average of hydropathicity” by using “ProtParam online server”.
Following these parameters, the data generated will be used for the secondary structure prediction of the ammonia acids following the “GalaxyWEB server” (Moore et al. 2021). The structure will identify patterns and alignments in protein structure with the target sequence. Based on the analysis of the model structure and parameters, the research will then generate the required 3-dimensional models of the structure by “molecular dynamics simulation.”
The proposed model is required to be validated with the experimental generated structures using the “MolProbity, ProSA, and Ramachandran plots” (Milane and Amiji, 2021). The “Defining discontinuous B-cell epitopes” will be used for the designing of the protein structures using “MODELLER program or BLAST search” methods. Based on the crystallographic structure prepared by the structural analysis of the protein analysis, the research will prepare and obtain the immune receptors and the required “NOM recombinant protein” for the preparation of the required virus responses.
In the analysis of the simulation of the required vaccine, the “Protein-Protein molecular docking and refinement” will be an important tool to be used for the analysis process, and “PatchDock webserver” will be used for the identification of proper alignment and orientation of the proteins (Mirzaei et al. 2020). For the refinement process and the analysis of the molecular docking, the “molecular dynamic simulation” process will be extremely helpful.
For the analysis process, the research will use information from various sources. The study will need the present survey and all the relevant literature to be updated with the chosen methodology and the process of the development of the required treatment with the vaccine. After the development process, the project will also be required to be able to apply the proposed vaccine concerning the clinical trials with appropriate sample size.
Due to such actors’ involvement in the proposed methodology of the development process, the ethical consideration of the process becomes extremely important (Hassanzadeh, 2021). The p[ropser representation of the generated data from the experiments will be published without any further data manipulation. The research wool also maintains the clinical ethics of conducting the trials and maintains the proper transparency in all the conducted tests.
4.0 Costs and Timeline
| Activity /Year (£) | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total (£) |
| Staff Costs: | ||||
| “Principal Investigator (PI) – will manage the entire project and guide the research X 10%” | 4500 | 4500 | 4500 | 13500 |
| “Postdoctoral Researcher – will manage and design the proposed experiments and carry out the required task for the fulfillment of the project X 100%” | 35000 | 35000 | 35000 | 105000 |
| “Research nurse – Will help to collect the required information of the patients conduct the clinical trial and record the health data X0.33 year” | – | – | 6600 | 6600 |
| “Bioinformatician – will help to analyze the sequencing, protein orientation, and molecular simulation X 0.33 year” | 15000 | – | – | 10000 |
| Materials / Equipment Costs: | ||||
| “Cell culture: required for the development of proteins and amino acids”. | 5000 | – | – | 5000 |
| “Molecular techniques: will be required for extraction of DNA/RNA and the cell epitopes” | 10000 | – | – | 10000 |
| “General consumables: required to carry out the experiments” | 10000 | 10000 | 10000 | 30000 |
| “Genome sequencing – to sequence the genome of individual organisms X100” | 10000 | – | – | 10000 |
| “Clinical trials: will require for the understanding the effectiveness of the proposed vaccine, costs include the storing recording and monitoring progress.” | – | – | 33000 | 33000 |
| Travel, communication, and evaluation costs | ||||
| “Conferences: Are required to share your findings with others in the scientific community. Costs include conference registration, accommodation, and travel.” | 5000 | 5000 | – | 10000 |
| “Service contracts: For upkeep of big equipment e.g. Sequencers” | 5000 | 5000 | – | 10000 |
| “Public engagement: is required to communicate your work to the public, e.g. school visits, science festivals, patient/clinician/nurse focus groups” | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 3000 |
| Total | 246100 | |||
5.0 Evaluation
In this development of the novel treatment process and the development of the universal vaccine treatment of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the primary factor for evaluation is the development and success of the clinical trial by using the proposed methodology (Uddin et al. 2020). The success will be measured in the betterment of the effectiveness of the vaccine against the disease.
By using the proposed methodology, the vaccine will be applicable for all ages, which will result in a lower rate of spread of the virus. This will also be resulting in a change in the treatment process and the priorities of the treatment itself. Based on the following SWOT analysis, the evaluation was judged.
Strength: The primary strength of the project is the availability of the required resources for the project. Various resources regarding the virus and its treatment process are made available for the conduction of this research process. The researcher will have access to every single resource required, and with this resource’s information and data, the researcher will have a better chance at conducting the experiments according to the project methodology.
The project has access to the information of the various, and the development of various pieces of literature regarding this proposed topic will help the project to expand its understanding and grasp over the project.
Weakness: THe primary weakness of the project topic is the variable nature of the virus infection; as a highly spreading virus, it is susceptible to mutation at a much higher rate (Dong et al. 2020). The mutation capabilities of the virus allow it to change its nature and process of infection, which leads to complications in the development of the vaccination process. Also, the variable age factor is a prime source of weakness for the project.
Opportunity: The primary opportunity available in the conduction of the project is the various information and web portals available regarding the virus, which is up to date regarding the variations and the mutations observed in the virus across various regions. The development of technological innovations and involvement of massive resources in the meditation of the pandemic provides a huge opportunity in medical research which will help this project to gain the momentum required for success.
Threat: The variable nature of the virus and the change in the delivery process suggested in the proposed methodology is a significant threat against the project. Due to the development of the proposed vaccine, the deployment of the vaccine and the vaccination priority will be changed, which can be considered a potential threat for the proposed project.
Reference list
Journals:
Dong, Y., Dai, T., Wei, Y., Zhang, L., Zheng, M. and Zhou, F., 2020. A systematic review of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates. Signal transduction and targeted therapy, 5(1), pp.1-14.
Enayatkhani, M., Hasaniazad, M., Faezi, S., Gouklani, H., Davoodian, P., Ahmadi, N., Einakian, M.A., Karmostaji, A. and Ahmadi, K., 2020. Reverse vaccinology approach to design a novel multi-epitope vaccine candidate against COVID-19: An in silico study. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, pp.1-16.
García-Montero, C., Fraile-Martínez, O., Bravo, C., Torres-Carranza, D., Sanchez-Trujillo, L., Gómez-Lahoz, A.M., Guijarro, L.G., García-Honduvilla, N., Asúnsolo, A., Bujan, J. and Monserrat, J., 2021. An Updated Review of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines and the Importance of Effective Vaccination Programs in Pandemic Times. Vaccines, 9(5), p.433.
Ghaebi, M., Osali, A., Valizadeh, H., Roshangar, L. and Ahmadi, M., 2020. Vaccine development and therapeutic design for 2019‐nCoV/SARS‐CoV‐2: Challenges and chances. Journal of cellular physiology, 235(12), pp.9098-9109.
Hassanzadeh, P., 2021. The significance of bioengineered nanoplatforms against SARS-CoV-2: From detection to genome editing. Life Sciences, p.119289.
Machhi, J., Shahjin, F., Das, S., Patel, M., Abdelmoaty, M.M., Cohen, J.D., Singh, P.A., Baldi, A., Bajwa, N., Kumar, R. and Vora, L.K., 2021. Nanocarrier vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.
Malabadi, R.B., Meti, N.T. and Chalannavar, R.K., 2021. Applications of nanotechnology in vaccine development for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease (Covid-19). International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovations, 8(2), pp.191-198.
Malik, J.A., Mulla, A.H., Farooqi, T., Pottoo, F.H., Anwar, S. and Rengasamy, K.R., 2021. Targets and strategies for vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, p.111254.
Milane, L. and Amiji, M., 2021. Clinical approval of nanotechnology-based SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines: impact on translational nanomedicine. Drug Delivery and Translational Research, pp.1-7.
Mirzaei, R., Mohammadzadeh, R., Mahdavi, F., Badrzadeh, F., Kazemi, S., Ebrahimi, M., Soltani, F., Kazemi, S., Jeda, A.S., Darvishmotevalli, M. and Yousefimashouf, R., 2020. Overview of the current promising approaches for the development of an effective severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine. International immunopharmacology, p.106928.
Moore, S., Hill, E.M., Dyson, L., Tildesley, M.J. and Keeling, M.J., 2021. Modelling optimal vaccination strategy for SARS-CoV-2 in the UK. PLoS computational biology, 17(5), p.e1008849.
Talukder, P. and Chanda, S., 2021. RNAi technology and investigation on possible vaccines to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, pp.1-13.
Uddin, M., Mustafa, F., Rizvi, T.A., Loney, T., Suwaidi, H.A., Al-Marzouqi, A.H.H., Eldin, A.K., Alsabeeha, N., Adrian, T.E., Stefanini, C. and Nowotny, N., 2020. SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19: viral genomics, epidemiology, vaccines, and therapeutic interventions. Viruses, 12(5), p.526.
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