New Charité junior research group in infection research
Berlin, 03. 12. 2020 – Is it possible to predict the course of a viral respiratory disease – for example caused by corona viruses – based on individual patient characteristics? A junior research group headed by Dr. Victor Corman at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin will now investigate this question. The research project, which was already applied for last year, takes on a whole new significance in the course of the current pandemic. It will be funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with almost two million euros over five years.
Viral infections of the respiratory tract are the most common infectious diseases in humans: On average, adults fall ill three times a year, children six times a year. In most cases, the infections are mild – but sometimes they lead to severe pneumonia, which can be fatal. Since the COVID 19 pandemic, one question that not only experts have been asking themselves is: why are the courses of the disease so different? And are there individual characteristics in patients that can be used to predict the course of the disease? Dr. Victor Corman, scientist and physician at the Institute of Virology on the Charité Mitte campus, set himself the goal of conducting long-term research into this topic as early as 2019 – using the common corona and so-called picorna viruses. He submitted the project entitled “VARIPath” for funding under the BMBF programme “Junior Research Groups in Infection Research” – with success. In the meantime, it has become clear that Dr. Corman has shown foresight with his application. After all, the need to predict the course of disease in infections with respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 is obvious today.
The scientist from the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF) and deputy head of the consultation laboratory for coronaviruses at the Charité will pursue two approaches in his new research group to come closer to predicting the course of the disease: The analysis of characteristics of the virus on the one hand and of the individual immune system on the other. “When a respiratory virus multiplies in humans, there are always minor mutations in the virus population,” explains Dr. Corman. “We want to find out whether the characteristics of the virus populations can be used to make a prognosis for those who are ill”.
The physician will use the most modern methods of high-throughput sequencing to analyse in detail such an evolution of the virus in the patient. He will focus in particular on picornaviruses and coronaviruses. Both types of virus store their genetic information in the form of RNA but show very different mutation rates. While corona viruses mutate only slowly, the genetic material of picornaviruses changes much faster. In addition to the originally planned investigation of previously known and widespread corona viruses such as HCoV-NL63 or HCoV-OC43, Dr Corman will also include the new corona virus SARS-CoV-2 in his studies.
In parallel, the researcher plans to analyse individual characteristics of the immune response in different patients. For this purpose, he wants to use genetic analysis, for example, to map the surface structures of the virus against which individual immune cells, the so-called B and T cells, are directed. The antibody response and the release of various immune messenger substances, the cytokines, will also be investigated. “For all these parameters, we will then check whether they allow predictions of, for example, incapacity for work, an additional bacterial infection or a stay in intensive care,” explains Dr. Corman. “Such prognostic parameters could then help to adapt treatment strategies at an early stage and positively influence the course of the disease”.
To promote
The research project VARIPath (“Virus evolution and immune repertoires as new prognostic markers in acute viral diseases of the respiratory tract”) is being funded for five years from November 2020 under the BMBF funding programme “Young Investigators Groups in Infection Research”. With this programme, the BMBF supports excellent young researchers in clinical and application-oriented infection research in order to generate findings on the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and to develop innovations for clinical practice.