Food, Global Health 5 min

SARS-CoV-2: INRAE’s research community in the Île-de-France region is mobilising

As the COVID-19 epidemic spreads throughout the world, the research community is mobilising its forces. In the Paris region, INRAE researchers Jean-François Eléouët and Bernard Delmas and their teams in the Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit (VIM) are hard at work: their aim is to accelerate their knowledge, prevent and cure the disease; each new goal corresponds to a new research project.

Published on 03 April 2020

© INRAE

Although there is every reason to believe that SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) arose from bats (the natural reservoir of coronaviruses) nothing is known about the precise origin, transmission or potential for evolution of the coronavirus that causes the new infectious respiratory disease called COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease 2019). No preventive or curative treatments are available. Faced with the current epidemic and its corollary of human and economic catastrophe, the French research community is gathering its forces: fundamental research, projects on diagnostic, clinical and therapeutic options, epidemiology and human and social sciences; the scope is enormous and INRAE teams specialised in virology are central to these efforts.

At the heart of the Île-de-France region, two specialists in respiratory viruses, Jean-François Eléouët and Bernard Delmas, both INRAE Research Directors, together with their teams and colleagues in the Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, are already getting down to the job.

Screening antiviral compounds that target SARS-CoV2

Handling the SARS-CoV-2 virus is complicated because it is so dangerous. Funded in the context of the REACTing Consortium, the fundamental research project being led by Jean-François Eléouët, Bernard Delmas and their colleagues aims to build a replicon for SARS-Cov-2 (or in other words, a defective, non-infectious viral particle that can replicate in cells in culture) in order to test different antiviral compounds on these cells. Because it is not dangerous, this replicon does not involve the risks linked to handling SARS-Cov-2 so offers a high-performance, inexpensive and easy to use tool for medium and high-throughput screening.

Identifying immunised individuals and evaluating the duration of immunity

In collaboration with Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti and her team in the Infection and Inflammation Unit (INSERM, Université de Versailles - St Quentin-en-Yvelines), Jean-François Eléouët and his colleagues are currently developing a serological screening test for COVID-19. This test is based on an antigen-antibody reaction using recombinant SARS-CoV-2 antigens and two coronaviruses that cause the common cold in humans, HCoV 229E and OC43, in order to verify the test’s specificity.

Similar studies are also under way in other countries. The work carried out by the INRAE/UVSQ teams will make it possible to determine the proportion of the population that has actually been infected (from which it will be possible to deduce the number of asymptomatic individuals), and to monitor protective antibody levels in the blood over time. The production of the necessary antigens is already under way.

Knowledge, skills and considerable humility

Jean-François Eléouët, Bernard Delmas and their teams are already closely acquainted with viruses. During the 1980s and 1990s, they worked on a porcine coronavirus, Transmissible GastroEnteritis Virus (TGEV) in their unit, which was led at that time by Hubert Laude – now Honorary Research Director at INRAE.

After TGEV disappeared naturally, the three scientists took their research down different paths.

 

“It was three years before the appearance of SARS-1”, remembers Jean François Eléouët.

 

A single concern – virology – and two different but complementary directions: respiratory syncytial virus and influenza for JF. Eléouët and B. Delmas, and prion diseases for H. Laude.

The goal pursued by Jean-François Eléouët and Bernard Delmas? To better understand the molecular mechanisms that govern the replication of these viruses with lung tropism, using the tools provided by cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics, and to achieve their eradication using specific antiviral compounds.  

They have been working towards this goal for many years, accumulating considerable experience and know-how that they are now able to apply to the fight against SARS-CoV-2. In a way, this is a return to their roots and the start of a long road that will be paved by numerous research projects, some of which have already been initiated and others that are coming to light.

 

All INRAE news on COVID-19

 

Catherine Foucaud-Scheunemanntranslated by Vicky Hawken

Contacts

Jean-François Eléouët Molecular Virology and Immunology Joint Research Unit (INRAE, Université de Versailles - St Quentin en Yvelines)

Centre

Division

Learn more

Food, Global Health

Dealing with emerging diseases: rethinking how we monitor global health

PRESS RELEASE - Is disease X already here? Does the arrival of COVID-19 mean we need to rethink our health monitoring systems? As part of the MOOD project, which began in January 2020, European and North American researchers are doing just that by looking at how we might detect early signs of new epidemics. As an expert in such emerging diseases, most of which come from animals, CIRAD is coordinating this project that brings together 25 research institutes and public health agencies.

19 March 2020

Food, Global Health

COVID-19: Tackling the Epidemic in 20 Research Projects

PRESS RELEASE - At a time when the Sars-CoV-2 epidemic is continuing to spread, France’s Alliance for Life Sciences and Health (Aviesan) is mobilizing to accelerate research into the virus and COVID-19 disease through REACTing – a consortium coordinated by Inserm. With the support of the Ministry of Solidarity and Health and the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Scientific Advisory Board of REACTing has selected 20 scientific initiatives covering diverse fields, from mathematical modelling to disease prevention and treatment.

12 March 2020