Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has stimulated open collaboration between different scientific and clinical disciplines like never before. Public and private partnerships continue to form in order to tackle this unprecedented global challenge. This paper highlights the importance of open collaboration and cooperation between the disciplines of medicine, veterinary medicine, and animal health sciences in the fight against COVID-19. Since the pandemic took the whole world by surprise, many existing drugs were rapidly repurposed and tested in COVID-19 clinical trials and some of the trials are revealing promising results, it is clear that the long-term solution will come in the form of vaccines. While vaccines are being developed, the antiviral agent Remdesivir (RDV, GS-5734) is being repurposed for use in human clinical trials but this is being done without acknowledging the significant efforts that went into development for treating cats with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a highly fatal immune-mediated vasculitis in cats which is caused by a feline coronavirus. There are many other antiviral drugs and immune modulating treatments that are currently being trialed that have animal health origins in terms of discovery and clinical development. Closer collaboration between the animal health and human health sectors is likely to accelerate progress in the fight against COVID-19. There is much that we do not yet know about COVID-19 and its causative agent SARS-CoV-2 but we will learn and progress much faster if we increase interdisciplinary collaboration and communication between human and animal health researchers and taking a genuine “One Health” approach to this and other emerging viral pathogens. Enhanced knowledge of zoonotic coronaviruses can significantly enhance our ability to fight current and future emerging coronaviruses. This article highlights the acute need for One Health and comparative medicine and the crucial importance of building on and recognizing veterinary research for addressing future human pandemics.
Highlights
COVID-19 is a new respiratory illness in humans that affects the lungs and the airways [1]. It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [2]
Despite early warning about its contagious nature, SARSCoV-2 has spread across the globe [4], infecting more than two million people and claiming more than 243,000 lives1 On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO), declared COVID-19 as a pandemic2, which is defined as the worldwide spread of new disease with major public health implications
The main clinical complications for COVID-19 patients are acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) [6], which is associated with the “cytokine storm” syndrome, the uncontrolled production of pro-inflammatory mediators that contribute to ARDS [7]
Summary
COVID-19 is a new respiratory illness in humans that affects the lungs and the airways [1]. The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID19) are fever, fatigue, continuous cough, and expectoration (sputum production) [5] The disease affects both lungs and most patients exhibit lymphopenia, increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) [5]. There is significant amino acid sequence homology between the spike protein epitopes of taxonomically-related coronaviruses [17] Can this knowledge help in the development of novel treatments for COVID-19? Based on the high-homology between the spike protein epitopes it has been hypothesized that past contact with infected animals may shield some humans against the circulating SARS-CoV-2 [17]. This is a very interesting hypothesis that requires further attention. Jenner’s discovery of the link between cowpox in cattle and smallpox in humans helped to lay the foundations of immunology and vaccinology, creating the first ever live vaccine: the smallpox vaccine [19]
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