Bioengineering tools to speed up the discovery and preclinical testing of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 and therapeutic agents for COVID-19

Abstract

This review provides an update for the international research community on the cell modeling tools that could accelerate the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection mechanisms and could thus speed up the development of vaccines and therapeutic agents against COVID-19. Many bioengineering groups are actively developing frontier tools that are capable of providing realistic three-dimensional (3D) models for biological research, including cell culture scaffolds, microfluidic chambers for the culture of tissue equivalents and organoids, and implantable windows for intravital imaging. Here, we review the most innovative study models based on these bioengineering tools in the context of virology and vaccinology. To make it easier for scientists working on SARS-CoV-2 to identify and apply specific tools, we discuss how they could accelerate the discovery and preclinical development of antiviral drugs and vaccines, compared to conventional models.

Treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a systematic review of in vitro, in vivo, and clinical trials

“…Fan et al demonstrated that in vitro EC 50 /EC 90 values for hydroxychloroquine should be compared to the in vivo free extracellular tissue concentration, which is similar to the free plasma hydroxychloroquine concentration 127 . Advances in cell modeling tools for biological research are expected to further enrich preclinical research design, and also help promote the development of new therapies 128 .…”

The 2020 race towards SARS-CoV-2 specific vaccines

“…Until outbreak of current pandemic, the development of vaccines and their approval lasted on average more than 15 years 85 . Vaccines against SARS-CoV-1 have not been introduced for 17 years since the outbreak of the epidemic and MERS-CoV for 6 years.…”

Microfluidic detection of human diseases: From liquid biopsy to COVID-19 diagnosis

“…However, antibody-based screening cannot replace the nucleic acid-based method which can better detect and diagnose current infection. A faster, portable, and precise one-step nucleic acid detection kit will thus be an essential need during any phase of a pandemic ( Raimondi et al, 2020 ). Integrative microfluidic-based nucleic acid detection systems have undergone great technological advancement in the past couple of years ( Yeh et al, 2020 , Zhuang et al, 2020 ).…”