A Brock University research team has received a grant that will enable them to research how humans react to COVID-19 and a possible therapy to treat infection.<\/p>\n
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) awarded immunologist Adam MacNeil and medical entomologist Fiona Hunter $200,000 to purchase high molecular and cellular resolution equipment for this work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited and honoured that the Canada Foundation for Innovation has equipped us with outstanding and sophisticated tools capable of analyzing and imaging virus-host interactions at the molecular and cellular level,\u201d says team leader MacNeil, Associate Professor of Health Sciences.<\/p>\n
The Brock research teams will study how cells respond to infection, the impact of acquired immunity toward coronaviruses, and how interactions between the immune system and cells lining the lungs shape the inflammation characteristic of severe COVID-19.<\/p>\n
They will also look at if and how a molecule called a peptide could be used to reduce the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, acting as a possible therapy.<\/p>\n
The new equipment will be housed in Brock University\u2019s Level 3 containment laboratory (CL3), which MacNeil says is the ideal location.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese tools will be used to directly investigate the biology of virus-host interactions and identify potential paths toward viral inhibition by equipping us with high-impact tools for work with live infectious samples within the safe confines of the CL3,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Level 3 enables Hunter, Professor of Biological Sciences, and her team to study arboviruses such as the Zika and West Nile viruses transmitted by mosquitoes, as Brock\u2019s CL3 lab is the only one at a Canadian University that is equipped with an insectary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Brock\u2019s CL3, Dr. MacNeil and I have graduate students who will study\u00a0the effects of co-infection and super-infection with\u00a0SARS-CoV-2\u00a0and a second virus such as influenza virus and will work on antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) of SARS-CoV-2 due to prior exposure to other coronaviruses,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Hunter says the new equipment is \u201ccritical\u201d for the team\u2019s coronavirus research and will be useful for other Brock researchers for testing the effectiveness of potential anti-viral compounds.<\/p>\n