In the fight against any infection the immune system has the final word
Paradoxically, the coronavirus pandemic offers unique opportunities for the development of a number of biomedical fields. These include such sciences as immunology and immunophysiology.
A certain percentage of severe course and even fatal outcomes of this viral infection in young people on the one hand, and far from isolated cases of successful recovery from coronavirus in people from the age category of 80+ and even centenarians indicates that in addition to such generally recognized risk factors as age and concomitant chronic diseases, there are other factors that affect the course of this disease and its outcome.
In particular, it can be assumed that the cause of severe COVID-19 in people who are not at risk may be genetically programmed features of the immune system, which ultimately determine the body's response to infectious agents, including the COVID-19 coronavirus. This position is held by some immunologists, who believe that severe forms of COVID-19 disease in completely healthy young people may be due to specific mutations that cause vulnerability of the immune system, which may not appear before meeting with this virus. In their opinion, a similar situation is observed in other cases of infections, since differences in genes and related differences in the body's immune response make it vulnerable to a number of infectious diseases, including those caused by viruses. In other words, in the human body's fight against any infection, including COVID-19, the immune system ultimately has the final say. In this regard, immunology and the relatively new field of scientific knowledge that is being formed on its basis - immunophysiology, which studies the physiological basis of the functioning of the immune system, are particularly relevant for post-coronavirus Biomedicine.
The review of global health statistics on COVID-19 reveals another point waiting to be explained: although COVID-19 diseases are registered in almost all countries of the world,there are marked differences between individual countries in terms of morbidity and mortality. At the same time, the disease is most severe (at least for now) in the most developed countries of Europe, the United States and great Britain, which have a highly developed medical system. For example, according to the who on 12 may, the number of deaths per 1 million population amounted to 576 in Spain, Italy - 508, France - 408, Germany - 91, -114 Portugal, Poland 22, Romania - 52, Denmark - 92, Czech Republic - 26, Croatia - 22, Austria - 69, Sweden - 328, Belarus - 15.
As you know, the last two countries did not introduce quarantine measures, but the difference in indicators is very noticeable. Of course, the existing picture is a reflection of the combined influence of many factors of biological and non-biological nature and will be the subject of more than one future study. But taking into account the above, it is possible that, among other factors, population differences in immunophysiological features or immunophysiological profile of the population of these countries also played a role, since, with a certain reservation, the set of people who make up the population of a particular country, in biological translation means a certain population that has a more or less common gene pool, which determines the specifics of the immune response at the population level. Thus, the development of multidisciplinary research projects to assess the immunophysiological profile not only at the individual but also at the population level is one of the priorities for post-COVID-19 Biomedicine.
The Institute of physiology of ANAS has sufficient theoretical potential and organizational experience to develop and implement similar scientific projects in close cooperation with other scientific centers of our country. For example, the Institute recently opened a laboratory of immunophysiology and experimental Transplantology, one of the scientific directions of which is to assess the immune status of a person in the age aspect using methods of molecular medicine, which have proven themselves well in our population studies in regions with a high level of longevity. It should be emphasized that this work is conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Bioregulation and gerontology Russian Academy of Sciences and Center for molecular Biomedicine, Saint-Petersburg research Institute of Phthisiopulmonology, Ministry of healthcare of the Russian Federation. In light of the new challenges facing biomedical science in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, we plan to strengthen the Institute's capacity to conduct research on biomedical issues and provide support - both technical and financial - to the scientific activities of those laboratories that study the fundamental mechanisms of interaction in the "organism-environment"system. We are confident that the results of these studies will allow us to create a database that is necessary for predicting various scenarios of future epidemiological processes caused by infectious agents, including viral attacks, and creating effective drugs to provide adequate immunological protection from their toxic effects.
Ulduz HASHIMOVA,
Director of the Institute of physiology of ANAS,
Doctor of Biological Sciences
