Curbing COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria: Analysing the Role of Plants Genetic Modification in Boosting Immunity Against Infectious Diseases
Abraham Isah - August 3, 2020 - 0 comments
Rose S.M. Gidado // Abraham Isah Figure 1: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Source: https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/transforming-health-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolutionHealth, nutrition and food security are inextricably linked. Scientific findings have revealed that various bacterial and viral infections including COVID-19 are greatly suffered by undernourished people around the world. Conversely, nutritional disorders often result from chronic or severe infections. With an estimate of 226 million undernourished people in Africa, and 5.1 million malnourished people in Nigeria, the continent is at risk of increasing its chances of being ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Malnutrition intensifies the impact of every diseases including the novel COVID-19 which appears to be especially deadly for people already in poor health. Though, the elderly (ages between 65 years and above) have continued to receive more attention, a well-nourished population of all ages are likely to be more resilient to the coronavirus disease if immunity is well boosted. The link between malnutrition and immunodeficiency has been underscored; while diet constitutes a critical determinant of immune status, immunodeficiency is caused by malnutrition worldwide.
The holistic success of the Nigeria’s COVID-19 response team is depended on protecting the most vulnerable members of the society from hunger and malnutrition in addition to encouraging regular hand-washing and social distancing. Therefore, the need to give maximum attention to the diet and nutritional status of all age groups in Nigeria is critical and calls for emergency. Malnutrition is one of the major pre-existing conditions that add to the risks of the several thousand people falling ill from COVID-19 because it leads to severe weakening of the immune systems, increased likelihood of getting ill, staying ill, and dying because of illness. For example, the deficiency of Iron, Iodine, Folate, Vitamin A, and Zinc, a term referred to as “hidden hunger” not only increases the risk of morbidity and mortality, but also contributes to poor growth, intellectual impairment, and perinatal complications. The consequence of this is poverty since illness also means loss of income in every part of the world.
Figure 2: The vicious cycle of undernutrition, immunodeficiency and infectious diseases
Source:https://immunizationevidence.org/featured_issues/undernutrition-and-infectious-disease/
Though nutritional status is a modifiable factor, it is an element that is strongly associated with the maintenance of the immune system integrity and host resistance against any infectious agent such as the corona virus. Combating the COVID-19 pandemic will take advances in many fronts, and plant biotechnology is required for some of the most-discussed urgent needs, including the need for faster new treatments, vaccine and nutritional enhancements of food crops. The development and application of biotechnology in plants and animals offers novel possibilities that could facilitate the nutritional enhancement of staple crops in developing countries that could boost immunity and thereby help in immune system resistance against the corona virus infectious disease. Recent advancements in plant transformation and transgene expression technologies can also facilitate the use of plants as bioreactors to produce a variety of bio-products at large scale and low cost. Such bioproducts could be effectively used as treatment or vaccines for the novel coronavirus. Though the earliest form of transformation techniques were based on the inputs of crop traits such as insect pests and virus resistance, abiotic and biotic stress tolerance and herbicide tolerance, plants transformation that targets the enhancement of specific nutrients in plant that could help solve the current problem has been achieved since 1990.
Bioactive ingredients play key roles in supporting the human immune system. Both the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), all of which were the well-known outbreaks of the last twenty years have similar characteristics with the novel COVID-19 pandemic; they are all diseases of the lower respiratory tract with a similar clinical presentation at their early stages of infection leading to significant mortality of those with compromised immune system, more especially the older people. Functional foods, otherwise known as nutraceuticals, have been known to boost immune system and thereby fight off viral infections and other diseases. For example, findings from scientific study conducted by Das (2020) has shown that the intravenous or oral administration of bioactive lipids, including arachidonic acid, may facilitate the resistance to- and recovery from- deadly viral infections such as the SARS-CoV-2, SARS, and MERS infections. The COVID-19 main protease (Mpro), the enzyme that has been considered as one of the key potential therapeutic drug targets in the metabolic pathway of the novel coronavirus, have been shown to be effectively inhibited by natural polyphenols such as the hesperidin and rutin bioactive molecules.
Though dietary supplementation with multi-vitamins, bioactive lipids, flavonoids and herbs may be a tool to support the human immune system against COVID19, such nutrient-dense foods are often not accessible by the poor and rural inhabitants due to cost and ignorance. The deployment of biotechnology tools can enable farmers engineer plants, most especially, staple crops such as rice, corn, cassava and others to express such vital micronutrients that are necessary to boost the immune system while also reducing cost and making it available to everyone.
Figure 3: Application of Biotechnology in the production of Nutrient Dense Foods for stronger immunity
Source: Capell et al. (2020)
Many of the problems facing humanity including hunger, insect pest’s infestation, inadequate raw materials and environmental pollution, are the same recurring challenges that man has tackled for centuries. Such problems have consistently existed because skeptics have continued to plant doubts and fears in the heart of the public about technological innovations that could come to the rescue of humanity. The safety of modern technological innovations, such as the application of genetic modification technology in agriculture has been strongly established by several experts from around the world and international scientific agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The recent rapid understanding of modern molecular biotechnology has facilitated the genetic engineering of organisms such as plants to express beneficial traits that will enable new solutions to food insecurities.
In the future, biotechnology may revolutionize the way we think. Technological advances have dramatically triggered the rates at which plant transformation can be achieved to meet our specific needs at every phase of life. The rapid drop in the cost of whole genome sequencing and synthesis technologies means that scientists can now carryout more research much faster and at a lower cost. Though the challenges of regulatory roadblocks and stiffened processes of approval will continue to remain major challenges for aspiring biotech innovators, the future looks bright for agricultural biotechnology researches, most especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Continuous advocacy and tailored scientific communication that will mostly target policy makers and key stakeholders of the agricultural sectors like farmers needs to be amplified in a time like this. With the commercialization of two Genetically Modified Crops; Bt Cotton and Bt Cowpea, Nigeria is already on her way to not just attaining Food security but Nutrition security. The Federal Government can intensify efforts to deploy biotechnology tools into the Agricultural sector that will lead to mass production of functional foods at very cheap and affordable cost.
Reference
Capell, T., Twyman, R.M., Najera, V.A., Ma, J.K.C., Schillberg, S. and Christou, PauL (2020). Potential Applications of Plant Biotechnology against SARS-CoV-2. J.tplants; Volume 25, Issue 7, 635-643.
You may Cite this article as: Rose S.M. Gidado and Abraham Isah (2020). Curbing COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria: Analysing the Role of Plants Genetic Modification in Boosting Immunity Against Infectious Diseases. OFAB Nigeria Policy Brief 072020-2
A publication of Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa, Nigeria Chapter,
c/o National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA),
Address: Umar Musa Yar’adua Way, Lugbe, P.M.B 5118, Wuse, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory
