TOMSK, Jul 27 – RIA Tomsk. Interdisciplinary group of scientists, including from TSU, has
begun work on a project to provide fundamental data on COVID-19; they will find
out why the new coronavirus is so actively transmitted from person to person
and whether it is possible to diagnose viral diseases using biophotonics and AI
techniques, the university's press service said.
According to the press service, about 40 species from
the group of coronaviruses are known today. COVID-19 demonstrates increased
contagiousness (infectivity). Earlier it was reported that the first cases of
COVID-19 were recorded at the end of December 2019, and already on March 1,
2020, WHO announced a pandemic of the new coronavirus. According to the
Worldometers website, as of July 27, there are more than 16.4 million cases in
the world, more than 10 million have recovered, and more than 653 thousand have
died.
Basic research
An interdisciplinary group of scientists from Tomsk
State University, Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics, Saratov
State University, Siberian State Medical University and Institute on Laser and
Information Technologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences has started a
large-scale study that will allow obtaining fundamental data on the
coronavirus.
"Researchers will study the physical mechanisms
of adhesion of a viral particle – its ability to adhere to various surfaces,
including adhesion to the cell surface. After that, the pathogen penetrates
into the "target" and begins its destructive activity. Understanding
the mechanisms of adhesion of COVID-19 will suggest ways to weaken this ability
and build an effective system for the protection of people", – is
explained in the message.
Diagnostics
© предоставил Виктор Черепанов
Viral infections, including COVID-19, are now
diagnosed using clinical tests, PCR tests, and studies of specific antibodies
are also being conducted. To determine them, blood serum is used. Scientists
within the framework of the project want to explore the possibility of a more
rapid diagnosis of viral diseases using biophotonics and artificial
intelligence.
"Biophotonic methods, with appropriate biological
or immunological markers, can effectively determine antigens, antibodies or
nucleic acids in saliva. Such an analysis is done many times faster and can
have a sufficiently high accuracy. Now, based on the analysis of saliva, a
number of ailments can be diagnosed - cardiovascular diseases, oncopathology,
AIDS and others", – the head of the Laboratory for Biophotonics, executive
director of the TSU Institute of Biomedicine Yuri Kistenev is quoted in the
message.
© предоставлено пресс-службой Томского госуниверситета
The head of Laboratory for Biophotonics, executive director of the TSU Institute of Biomedicine Yuri Kistenev
Scientists will search for specific markers at the
second stage of the project.
The tools to identify COVID-19 indicators will be the
methods of Raman spectroscopy, therahertz and infrared spectroscopy. Selected
markers will be used for machine learning of the computer model, the task of
which will be to search for specific "marks" in the saliva of
patients", – the press service added.
The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) will
allocate 12 million rubles for this joint scientific work. The results of the
project are planned to be presented in September 2022.