There was a time when a medical student reading the virology chapters would marvel at the efforts and techniques required to explore in detail the structure of these tiny beings called viruses mentioned in the textbooks. Well, the word “virus” when it was first used in Latin did not mean virus with its modern connotation, rather it meant a poisonous substance. Today an average layman has seen microphotographs of the spherical influenza virus or bullet shaped rabies virus or the filamentous ebolavirus. Running abreast of other subspecialities in precision medicine, the sub speciality of Infectious Diseases has its saga of molecular targets, facilitated by the technology to precisely identify and re-create models of protein targets and nucleic acids.
Although this technology of creating 3D models on a computer is relatively new, the first monoclonal antibody that target a specific epitope was generated for human use in 1975. This is an opportunity to marvel at the creation of human beings who carry this technology running in their bodies unknowingly since ages.
The antitoxin against clostridium difficile toxin B bezlotoxumab and the monoclonal antibodies targeting the spike protein of SARS CoV2 like Bamlanivimab/Etesevimab, Casirivimab/Imdevimab, Sotrovimab and Bebtelovimab approved for treatment (and some among them for post exposure prophylaxis) or Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab approved for pre exposure prophylaxis against COVID19 are examples of this astonishing advancement. They also find application in the management of rabies, HIV and several other infectious diseases and non infectious diseases. They are remarkably safe and highly effective if the appropriate choice is made.
The CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology which is just 10 years old has opened up a whole new paradigm in diagnostics and treatment of infectious diseases, besides other applications like permanently lowering cholesterol levels by gene editing, managing type 1 diabetes and even cultivating edible beef!
Employing the ‘invisible’ friends to chase the ‘invisible’ foes has never been more fascinating.
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