NIAID strategic plan addresses COVID-19 research priorities for diagnosis, prevention and treatment

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) released its strategy for accelerating research into the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of COVID-19 this week, establishing four key priorities.

These priorities include improving key knowledge of both COVID-19 and the virus, which causes it, SARS-CoV-2. Much remains to be learned about both, both in how they should be characterized and how they cause infection and disease. Experts still don’t know why some experience only mild symptoms, while others become seriously ill or asymptomatic individuals’ role in spreading the pair. This area of research will be dependent on natural history, transmission, and surveillance studies, along with the development of animal models.

Second, NIAID has emphasized the development of rapid, accurate diagnostics and assays to identify and isolate COVID-19 cases and track the virus’s spread. In a separate report this week, Johns Hopkins University noted that many COVID-19 tests are on the market now, but many fail to provide accurate results. NIAID seeks both molecular assays and new and improved serologic assays to detect antibodies.

A third priority includes characterizing and testing possible treatments for COVID-19, including the identification and evaluation of drugs already approved for other conditions, but which might be repurposed. NIAID is also pursuing novel broad-spectrum antivirals, virus-targeted antibody-based therapies, monoclonal antibodies, and host-directed strategies to target individuals’ immune responses to the virus. Multiple clinical trials will be conducted parallel to one another to enhance the speed of this process.

NIAID’s fourth and final research priority is the development of vaccines that could effectively protect people from infection and prevent future outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2. It’s also a global priority in a world where millions of people have been infected by the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. NIAID’s efforts are focused on adapting vaccine candidates previously used on MERS and SARs coronaviruses and on advancing experimental vaccines through Phase 1 safety and dosing testing, while simultaneously planning for advanced clinical testing of the most promising candidates.