A lab employee at the Center for Disease Control of Nantong, East China's Jiangsu Province, conducts experiment on February 25. Photo: VCG

Science and technology, which have led China onto a new development path driven by innovation, are also playing a pivotal role in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus and saving lives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The country has been pooling scientific wisdom to improve its knowledge of the virus, upgrade diagnosis and treatment plans, and develop vaccines as quickly as possible.

"Science and technology are the most powerful weapons in humanity's battle against diseases," Chinese President Xi Jinping said.

Research improves knowledge

Chinese researchers are racing against time. Their early work isolating the novel coronavirus and sequencing its entire genome has enabled scientists and health authorities worldwide to carry out follow-up research.

It was not only necessary to isolate the virus, but to enable it to pass - or propagate - stably, said Ren Lili, a researcher with the Institute of Pathogen Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

By January 26, her institute had provided the genome sequences of five novel coronavirus strains to the National Genomics Data Center (NGDC).

Repeated freezing and thawing of the samples during transportation makes it difficult for the virus to proliferate. "We must operate in the third level of biosafety with inclined tubes used to reduce inoculation and single tubes to avoid cross-infection," Ren said.

Her team's rigorous and diligent work has helped lay a foundation for the development of testing kits, drug screening and vaccine evaluation.

Chinese researchers have also investigated the source of the virus, its transmission routes and patients' clinical features to offer references for COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment.

By analyzing genome samples of wild animals, they discovered COVID-19 may have originated in bats, and that pangolins were the most likely intermediate virus host.

They also determined the virus may spread through drainage systems - in addition to conventional transmission via respiratory droplets and direct contact - after isolating a virus strain from a patient's feces.

Chinese pathologists released autopsy results for 11 patients who had died of COVID-19 to help better understand how the new infectious disease affects visceral organs, and a study based on the data of 1,099 laboratory-confirmed patients across China warned that infected individuals may not have a fever or CT abnormality. By March 26, Chinese researchers had published 54 research papers in prestigious international journals, and a platform for COVID-19 research sharing went online on the Chinese Medical Journal Network with more than 700 research papers, recording 2.3 million views.

Search for effective treatment

Chinese researchers continue searching for more effective drugs and exploring new treatment methods to prevent patients with mild symptoms from deteriorating and to save patients in serious conditions.

They scanned more than 70,000 drugs or compounds through computer simulations and in vitro enzyme activity tests, and selected 5,000 potentially effective drug candidates.

The candidates were then tested at the cellular level against the common coronavirus infection, and about 100 drugs were chosen for further experiments, which helped select the final drugs for clinical trials, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Drugs including favipiravir, chloroquine phosphate, tocilizumab and remdesivir, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, were found to have the potential to defeat COVID-19. Some have completed clinical trials in China.

Favipiravir, an influenza drug that was approved for clinical use in Japan in 2014, has cured patients of the virus in a shorter time than other drugs and no noticeable adverse reactions were detected in a concluded clinical trial in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province.

Tocilizumab, with the common brand name Actemra, has been found effective in preventing inflammation and has been included in China's latest diagnosis and treatment guidelines for COVID-19.

China is also pushing forward the utilization of some advanced technologies such as stem cell therapy, artificial liver and blood purification in the treatment of severe cases.

Stem cell therapy has been used to treat 64 patients in severe and critical conditions, and has proven effective in reducing severe inflammatory reactions caused by COVID-19, as well as reducing lung injury and pulmonary fibrosis in patients.

Five approaches to vaccine development

China has adopted five technological approaches to the development of COVID-19 vaccines: inactivated vaccines, genetic engineering subunit vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, and vaccines using attenuated influenza viruses as vectors. Most teams are expected to complete preclinical research in April.

The recombinant vaccine developed by the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences began its clinical trial on March 16. Chen Wei, the leader of the team, said they are striving to put the vaccine into clinical application within the shortest possible time, to provide strong scientific and technological support to win the battle against the pandemic.

Biotech company Stemirna Therapeutics has launched a program with the Shanghai East Hospital of Tongji University to develop an mRNA vaccine, which has the advantage of a shorter development and production cycle. The mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 is expected to enter clinical trials in mid-April.

Zhang Linqi from Tsinghua University is leading a team to use a genetic engineering method for the design of vaccines.

By studying the mechanism of the virus' invasion into host cells at the atomic level, Zhang's team hopes to provide a better understanding of viral infection mechanisms and unveil a more pise and focused target for vaccine development.

As the vaccines have to be tested first on animals, Chinese researchers have quickly established humanized transgenic mouse models and Rhesus monkey models. Currently, eight COVID-19 vaccines are under evaluation using the animal model.

Chinese officials and experts have also highlighted the need to respect scientific principles and strictly follow standards to ensure the safety and quality of the vaccines.