Health Impact
The future development of drugs against RNA viruses is expected to have a very significant impact on human health-related quality of life. The three classes of RNA-based viruses include more than 350 different major human pathogens and most of the etiological agents of emerging diseases. These viruses are responsible for not only very frequent benign diseases (which nonetheless have an enormous economic impact, vide infra) but also for millions of deaths each year in both industrialised and developing countries. Among the most formidable agents are RNA viruses of gastroenteritis (>1 million deaths annually), measles (>45 million cases and >1 million deaths annually), influenza (>100 million cases annually), dengue ( 300 million cases annually), enteroviruses (several million cases of meningitis annually), and hepatitis C virus (>150 million infected people in the world).
Whereas for DNA-based cellular pathogens some treatments exist, there are few efficient antiviral drugs against RNA viruses.
Consequently, drug development against RNA viruses - the ultimate goal of the VIZIER project - is becoming a top priority for global health-care programs. Other medically relevant avenues the VIZIER team expects to advance are molecular diagnostics and epidemiological modeling of RNA virus infections. Both will benefit from the comprehensive genetic characterization of human RNA viruses performed by this project.
The VIZIER consortium is also eager to contribute to and improve general public’s perception of science, It is increasingly apparent that our society will, in the future, have to deal with emergencies involving viral threats or epidemics. These threats will have a great impact on public opinion. Not only will health administrators have to respond adequately and rapidly (hours or days), but the public will also demand that scientists be ready to respond in the fastest possible manner. The apparently puzzling question then arises. How can science quickly react against a previously unknown emerging pathogen? An answer can be found in the predictive power of comprehensive genetic characterisation of human RNA viruses performed by VIZIER. Indeed, the recent atypical pneumonia epidemics, due to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), stands as an enlightening example not only of public expectations but also as to how they can be addressed. When the complete SARS-CoV genome sequence became available in April 2003, it took only a few days for the first structural model of the key SARS-CoV protease to be released in the electronic literature (by a VIZIER Partner), making drug-design possible within months. This exceptionally rapid response was possible because a structurally related protease crystal structure (from Transmissible Gastro-Enteritis Virus (TGEV), an animal pathogen irrelevant to human health) had been previously solved by the same group. Consequently, soon after the causative agent of SARS was recognized as a coronavirus, this model could be successfully extended to SARS. In determining crystal structures of key enzymes from all genera including mammalian pathogens, VIZIER will make this unusual and outstanding achievement possible in more general terms, establishing a strong connection between high-tech research and public needs. Very similar considerations apply to the threats posed by bio-terrorism.
Whereas sudden and novel epidemics may arise in the future, the present reality has to face existing and endemic viral diseases, both fighting them in their homelands as well as preventing their spread to new areas (e.g. the West Nile virus and the dengue fever epidemics). Here new antiviral drugs are already desperately needed.
Potential Impact
