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Fellow caregivers:
At Cleveland Clinic were very passionate
about discovering the treatments of tomorrow.
Our scientists and researchers have been working tirelessly
to expand our understanding of COVID-19.
Today I'm joined by Dr. Serpil Erzurum,
Chair of our Lerner Research Institute,
to hear about this exciting work.
Serpil, thank you for joining me today.
Thank you for inviting me to join you.
So let’s just speak a little bit about the COVID virus.
How is this virus different from other viruses
like SARS, Swine Flu, and Ebola?
Yeah that's a great question.
There are a lot of viruses that, they're all similar,
in that, they're encoded, their genome, by an RNA.
We have DNA in ourselves, they have RNA,
and they infect the human host.
But the difference between them
that's probably the most important difference to note,
is that COVID, this corona virus,
is infectious before you become sick.
It is infectious while you look very healthy
and that's a very big difference
between the other viruses and it.
What are our experiences about treating patients
who've had COVID?
We have learned so much in the last several weeks.
We have developed a registry of more than 20,000 people
tested for COVID at the Cleveland Clinic
and we know from those that are positive on their COVID testing
and that database, that the vast majority do very well.
More than 90% of the people recuperate
and do very well at home.
But for the small percent of people
that go on to become very sick and require hospitalization,
we've structured a number of different ways to care for them,
including some drug trials and other interventions
that we do to keep people safe and help them recover.
Well that is good news,
and obviously for those who overcome the illness,
the question, the frequently asked question is,
are they now immune?
Can they be infected again?
This virus is very similar to the first SARS virus,
where immunity was very effective.
Current data suggests that immunity occurs
in people who had the virus.
That's effective from preventing re-infection.
In addition, we have very good models of infection of animals,
and then they can not be re-infected.
Finally, the best evidence that we do have effective immunity,
is the fact that we can take plasma
from an individual who was infected,
transfer that immunity passively
to somebody who does have the infection,
and it helps them recover.
All those things strongly support
that immunity does develop.
It's effective at neutralizing the virus.
So the antibodies are protecting us from being infected again.
There's a lot of hope being put in antibody testing,
yet the testing is not available.
Can you explain to us why is that the case?
The problem is that there are a lot of corona viruses.
The common cold is a corona virus.
Immune testing to diagnose COVID is difficult to do,
because if you've had even a common cold a few weeks ago,
and we tested your body,
it would look like you have immunity to corona virus,
but not necessarily to COVID-19,
and not necessarily that protected from catching it.
It would be a false reassurance to do immunoglobulin testing
as a diagnostic strategy.
Can you speak a bit about the process
of developing a vaccine?
How long does it take,
and when do you think that we can expect
having a vaccine against the COVID-19?
The usual strategy for making a vaccine is,
you take the live virus,
you inject it into chicken eggs,
you allow it to grow, and then you deactivate it
and inject that into people.
Immunity develops, and when the real virus comes along,
you're protected.
Now that takes a long time.
That's what many of you have heard in the news.
It takes 12 to 18 months.
But there are new strategies
where we don't have to grow the virus.
We can take the nuclear material
that encodes part of the virus, the surface proteins,
inject it into human beings.
Your body will recognize it as being foreign.
Antibodies are again developed,
attacks that protein, and goes away.
Now, if the virus enters your body, it sees that protein.
Your body remembers it.
The antibodies come and destroy the virus.
There are so many new technologies now
that are using these sorts of strategies.
It's very helpful.
Those studies are already in Phase 1
and some are entering phase 2 and phase 3.
Phase 3 means large studies,
and a quick path to having something available
for our community.
How much hope is put into antiviral drugs?
Is this something that we can expect to be developed
before the vaccine were to become available?
Antiviral drugs, again I'll use the example of flu.
If you do have the vaccine
but you still somehow contract the flu,
there's a medication we can give you
early in the course of the virus
to prevent you from becoming severely ill.
Similarly, for this virus,
we'll have some antiviral strategies.
We're using big data, artificial intelligence,
and a platform study approach
to study a number of innovative new drugs.
But then, repurposing drugs we have in hand
that we've learned could be an effective strategy.
Oftentimes people ask us, “how can they help?”
How would philanthropy accelerate our research efforts,
as well as other aspects, like diagnosis and treatment?
Well, philanthropy makes all of research go faster.
We're in the middle of a pandemic.
It is a crisis.
It's a public health crisis globally,
and we can't wait to apply for grants
and get research funding.
The time it takes to get a grant funded
can be more than a year.
We're not going to wait for that.
We've already started our research.
We've already started our trials,
because we need to do that.
Philanthropy gives us the resources we need now
to continue to move that forward.
Every minute we don't act is a lost opportunity.
Serpil, thank you so much for being with us today.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for all the work
that you and your research team do.
Thank you Dr. Mihaljevic for your help
and everything you do for us.
Thank you.
Thank you very much again.
So research has been a central part of our mission
since 1921, and this will not change.
We will continue to celebrate our scientists and researchers
and incorporate their discoveries into our care.
Thank you to all caregivers
for your dedication to our mission.
You are what distinguishes Cleveland Clinic
and what makes our organization shine around the globe.
Thank you very much.
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