At the end of 2019, there was an outbreak of "pneumonia of unknown cause" in Wuhan. At that time, some people wondered whether SARS had re-emerged, but there were different theories about the cause. And if you were a scientist, what would you do? If you want to find the murderer in a murder case, you will try to collect fingerprints, collect traces of microscopic objects, and compare various characteristics; and scientists actually do the same: after collecting viruses from patients, they try to cultivate them ; they can see its appearance through an electron microscope. , found to have the appearance characteristics of the coronavirus ; by analyzing the gene sequence in the virus , try to explain its origin and who the relatives may be.
Once we know enough about our opponents, we can devise Photo Manipulation Service tests to find the virus lurking in patients. Professor Wu Hongyi explained that as far as virus testing is concerned, the most sensitive method is to detect nucleic acids, but the shortcoming of the experiment is that it takes about 6 hours. Another feasible method is to detect viral proteins (ie antigens) or antibodies produced by infected persons, such as enzyme immunoassay (ELISA). In addition to detecting patients through testing, another important goal is the development of therapeutic drugs. In order to successfully develop drugs for viruses, we must first understand the life history of the virus at each stage after the virus enters the human body, and find the drug target at each stage to block its replication as the therapeutic goal.
Professor Wu Hongyi took the coronavirus as an example to illustrate, and divided the development of therapeutic drugs into the following four categories according to the life history of the virus: Prevent viruses from entering cells: To be able to enter cells, viruses need to rely on their own specific proteins to bind to receptors in the target cells. Scientists can use computers to help screen out drugs with structures that can bind to the protein by solving the structure of the virus protein, preventing the virus from entering cells.