Manataba Messenger

Page 14 Copyright 2020 The Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) formerly known as the Colorado River Indian Reservation, was brought into American existence in 1865 when the United States by Act of Congress officially recognized their idea of the captured boundary of the Mohave peo- ple; which is what still exists today although, their original boundaries extended all the way into Mexico. The Colorado River Indian Tribes is now made up of a total of four tribes, the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo and enjoys a vibrant cultural community of members, unlike any other tribe. The current tribal population is 4,570 members. The Manataba Messenger is the official publication of the Colorado River Indian Tribes with headquarters and publication address on the Colorado River Indian reservation and within the State of Arizona. As such, it is the publication legally qualified to publish official legal notices as required by law. (A.R.S. 39-201,202,203,204,205). MANATABA MESSENGER (USPS 035-994) is published monthly by the Colorado River Indian Tribes, Mohave Road and 2nd Avenue, Parker, Arizona, 85344. FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE GIVEN TO OFF RESERVATION TRIBAL MEMBERS ONLY. Tribal members write a formal request to CRIT Manataba Messenger, c/o Subscriptions 16600 Mohave Road, Parker, AZ 85344, please include your full name, address, contact phone number and tribal identification num- ber. Currently, the newspaper publishes 3,800 per month to the members of the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The Manataba Messenger is proud to be printed on recyclable paper and ink, by a company that is committed to an environmentally safe production process, education, and policy. Editorials and articles are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion, attitude or philosophy of the MANATABA MESSENGER or the Colorado River Indian Tribes. MANATABA MESSENGER does not assume responsibility for unsolicited materials and does not guarantee publication of any content upon submission. MANATABA MESSENGER reserves the right to reject any material or letter submitted for publication. MANATABA MESSENGER reserves the right to refuse, amend, withdraw, or otherwise deal with all ADVERTISEMENTS submitted at their absolute discretion and without explanation. MANATABA MESSENGER does not endorse any product or services accepted as advertisement for the newspaper. All contributions received @: MANATABA MESSENGER 26600 Mohave Road, Parker, AZ 85344 Email: manatabamessenger@gmail.com Phone: (520) 238-2969 NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT FULL WRITTEN CONSENT FROM THE COLORADO RIVER INDIAN TRIBES OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL. ALL VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW. Ivy Ledezma Wowasi Wast’e Win Mohave, Fort Mohave, Oglala Lakota Colorado River Indian Tribal Member Publisher/Editor THE LATEST RESEARCH INFORMATION Structural Biology Points Way to Coronavirus Vaccine By Dr. Francis Collins www.directorsblog.nih.gov Posted March 3, 2020 The recent COVID-19 outbreak of a novel type of coro- navirus that began in China has prompted a massive global effort to contain and slow its spread. Despite those efforts, over the last month the virus has begun circulating outside of China in multiple countries and territories. Cases have now appeared in the United States involv- ing some affected individuals who haven’t traveled recently outside the country. They also have had no known contact with others who have recently arrived from China or other countries where the virus is spreading. The NIH and other U.S. public health agen- cies stand on high alert and have mobilized needed resources to help not only in its containment, but in the development of life-saving interventions. On the treatment and prevention front, some encourag- ing news was recently reported. In record time, an NIH-funded team of researchers has created the first atomic-scale map of a promising protein target for vac- cine development [1]. This is the so-called spike protein on the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. As shown above, a portion of this spiky surface appendage (green) allows the virus to bind a receptor on human cells, causing other portions of the spike to fuse the viral and human cell membranes. This process is need- ed for the virus to gain entry into cells and infect them. Preclinical studies in mice of a candidate vaccine based on this spike protein are already underway at NIH’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC), part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). An early-stage phase I clinical trial of this vaccine in people is expected to begin within weeks. But there will be many more steps after that to test safety and efficacy, and then to scale up to produce millions of doses. Even though this timetable will potentially break all previous speed records, a safe and effective vaccine will take at least another year to be ready for widespread deploy- ment. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, including some that cause “the common cold” in healthy humans. In fact, these viruses are found throughout the world and account for up to 30 percent of upper respiratory tract infections in adults. This outbreak of COVID-19 marks the third time in recent years that a coronavirus has emerged to cause severe disease and death in some people. Earlier coron- avirus outbreaks included SARS (severe acute respira- tory syndrome), which emerged in late 2002 and disap- peared two years later, and MERS (Middle East respira- tory syndrome), which emerged in 2012 and continues to affect people in small numbers. Soon after COVID-19 emerged, the new coronavirus, which is closely related to SARS, was recognized as its cause. NIH-funded researchers including Jason McLellan, an alumnus of the VRC and now at The University of Texas at Austin, were ready. They’d been studying coronaviruses in collaboration with NIAID investigators for years, with special attention to the spike proteins. Just two weeks after Chinese scientists reported the first genome sequence of the virus [2], McLellan and his colleagues designed and produced samples of its spike protein. Importantly, his team had earlier developed a method to lock coronavirus spike proteins into a shape that makes them both easier to analyze structurally via the high-resolution imaging tool cryo-electron microscopy and to use in vaccine development efforts. After locking the spike protein in the shape it takes before fusing with a human cell to infect it, the researchers reconstructed its atomic-scale 3D structural map in just 12 days. Their results, published in Science, confirm that the spike protein on the virus that causes COVID-19 is quite similar to that of its close relative, the SARS virus. It also appears to bind human cells more tightly than the SARS virus, which may help to explain why the new coronavirus appears to spread more easily from person to person, mainly by respira- tory transmission. McLellan’s team and his NIAID VRC counterparts also plan to use the stabilized spike protein as a probe to iso- late naturally produced antibodies from people who’ve recovered from COVID-19. Such antibodies might form the basis of a treatment for people who’ve been exposed to the virus, such as health care workers. The NIAID is now working with the biotechnology company Moderna, Cambridge, MA, to use the latest findings to develop a vaccine candidate using messen- ger RNA (mRNA), molecules that serve as templates for making proteins. The goal is to direct the body to produce a spike protein in such a way to elicit an immune response and the production of antibodies. An early clinical trial of the vaccine in people is expected to begin in the coming weeks. Other vaccine candidates are also in preclinical development. Meanwhile, the first clinical trial in the U.S. to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19 is already underway at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s biocontainment unit [3]. The NIH-sponsored trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the experi- mental antiviral drug remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with COVID-19. The first participant is an American who was repatriated after being quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. As noted, the risk of contracting COVID-19 in the United States is currently low, but the situation is changing rapidly. [THIS ARTICLE WAS POSTED MARCH 3, 2020] One of the features that makes the virus so challenging to stay in front of is its long latency period before the characteristic flu-like fever, cough, and shortness of breath manifest. In fact, people infect- ed with the virus may not show any symptoms for up to two weeks, allowing them to pass it on to others in the meantime. You can track the reported cases in the United States on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. As the outbreak continues over the coming weeks and months, you can be certain that NIH and other U.S. public health organizations are working at full speed to understand this virus and to develop better diag- nostics, treatments, and vaccines. References:[1] Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the pre- fusion conformation. Wrapp D, Wang N, Corbett KS, Goldsmith JA, Hsieh CL, Abiona O, Graham BS, McLellan JS. Science. 2020 Feb 19. [2] A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China. Wu F, Zhao S, Yu B, Chen YM, Wang W, Song ZG, Hu Y, Tao ZW, Tian JH, Pei YY, Yuan ML, Zhang YL, Dai FH, Liu Y, Wang QM, Zheng JJ, Xu L, Holmes EC, Zhang YZ. Nature. 2020 Feb 3. NIH clin- ical trial of remdesivir to treat COVID-19 begins. NIH News Release. Feb 25, 2020. Caption: Atomic- level structure of the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19. Credit: McLellan Lab, University of Texas at Austin The Roots of NIH The National Institutes of Health traces its roots to 1887, when a one-room labora- tory was created within the Marine Hospital Service (MHS), predecessor agency to the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The MHS had been established in 1798 to provide for the medical care of merchant seamen. In the 1880s, the MHS had been charged by Congress with exam- ining passengers on arriving ships for clinical signs of infectious diseases, especially for the dreaded dis- eases cholera and yellow fever, in order to prevent epidemics.