IC vaccine e cac

Years of work in developing athematical m del of infectious diseases came useful in describing the workings of COVID-19 vaccines

BY BAGESHRI SAVYASACHI

hile it is known that COVlD-19 vaccines grant a high degree of protection against the SARSCoV-2 virus, the factorthat detenninesthe efficacy oreffectiveness of these vaccineshasstu1npedscientistsand researchers.

Queensland University researcher DrPraneshPad1nanabhanalongwith co!Jaborators ProfNarendra Dixit (Indian Institute ofScience, Bengaluru)andDrRajat Desikan (Certara, UK) havebeendeveloping mathematical 111odelsofinfectiousdiseasesto understandtheunderlyingn1echanismsand optimisetreatn1entsformorethanadecade.

"Thisexperienceallowed usto develop a model describingtheworkingsofCOVID-19 vaccines swiftly," DrPadmanabhan told IndianLink.

Theteam analysedover80different antibodiesgeneratedagainst the surface spikeprotein ofSARS-CoV-2, thevirus that causes COVlD-19.

"Basedon thisanalysis, we developed a model topredictvaccine-inducedantibody responsesi11 vaccinated individuals," he said."Wethenextendedthe1nodel to predict howvaccine-induced antibody responsescontrol thedyna1nics ofinfections ininfected individuals. This allowed usto predict the protectionconferredbyeight approved COVID-19 vaccinesin clinical trials."

In thepast, thetaskofpredictingvaccine efficacyproved tootaxingbecause vaccines inducediversesetsofantibodieswithinand across individuals, andeachantibody hasa differentcapacitytocontrolvirusgrowthin the body.

"Thisdiversityofantibodyresponseswasa challengetoquantify," DrPadmanabhansaid. Thenewn1odel quantitativelycaptures thereported efficaciesofeightmajor COVlD-19vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna,Astrazeneca, SputnikV, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, CoronoVac, Covaxin), and more importantly,generates quantitative linksbetween thevaccineinduced antibodyresponses and the resultingprotectionagainstinfection.

DrPadmanabhansaysthisshouldhelp expedite future vaccinedevelopment and optimizevaccinationstrategies.

"We started thisworkbecause itcan have ahuge health impact,"he added.

What'sthenextstep?

"Ourmodelisdesignedtopredictvaccine efficacies againsttheoriginal SARS-CoV-2 strain,"DrPadmanabhandescribed. "Itturns outinadditiontoantibody response, the otherarn1sofourimn1une system, suchas Tce!Jresponse, maybe atplay todetermine thevaccineefficaciesagainstthenewSARSCoV-2 variants.The immediate next step will be toexpandtheframeworkto incorporate keyimmune responses necessaryforthe protectionagainst newvariants."

Then1athematical biologist is interested in understandingmechanisms underlying several infectious and neurodegenerative diseases. Lately, he's beenfocusingon COVID-19 andAlzheimer'sdisease.

"There arecurrentlynodisease-modifying treatments forAlzheimer's disease," he revealed. "Bycombiningcomputational mode!Jing, advanced imaging,and biological experimentations, l aimtoimproveou1· understandingofAlzheimer'sdisease and help developnewtreatments".

DrPadmanabhanis from Coin1batore and received hisPhD attheIndian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.

"Itis afantasticinstitutetostart one's career,"hemused.

Hewasthe recipientofa three-year UniversityofQueenslandfellowshipwhich brought him to Australia in 2015, and allowed him tojoin the Queensland Brain lnstitute.

He startedhiscareer as achemical engineer. Overtheyears,hedeveloped an interestin usingmathematicstounderstand biologicalsystemsand whatmightgowrong indisease conditions.

"l realisedthattechnological advancements havecreated aunique opportunitytoidentify mathematical principles, orevenlaws,ofbiological systems. I am quite excitedto findoutif there areuniversallawsofbiology," he said.