Plant Solutions for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Historical Reflections and Future Perspectives
Plant Solutions for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Historical Reflections and Future Perspectives
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DOI：
10.1016/j.molp.2020.05.014
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发表时间：
2020-05
期刊：
影响因子：
27.5
通讯作者：
J. Weng
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
J. Weng
当我在2020年4月下旬撰写这篇评论时，世界正在争先恐后地应对新冠肺炎大流行。新冠肺炎是2019年冠状病毒病的简称，是由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2型引起的传染病。全球已有300多万人感染新冠肺炎，20多万人死于这种疾病。世界各地数十亿人的正常生活被打乱。全球经济损失不可估量。我所在的地方(美国马萨诸塞州)，大学自3月中旬以来一直停课。大多数研究人员都被派往家里工作，这意味着面对面的实验室研究不得不突然停止。新冠肺炎疫情无情地剥夺了我们在现代社会中认为理所当然的一些非常基本的活动，比如上班、和朋友外出就餐以及参加社交聚会。尽管痛苦，但新冠肺炎也敲响了警钟，提醒我们，当流行病到来时，我们的社会仍然是多么脆弱。关于传染病，我们还需要了解很多东西，因为我们仍然缺乏有效的方法来根除它们。在这里，我从植物科学的角度对新冠肺炎大流行进行反思。首先，自人类起源以来，植物一直是人类的主要药物来源。一些最早的现代药物确实是治疗传染病的植物天然产物。植物在治疗新冠肺炎和其他传染病方面可以提供很多东西，但需要跨学科的研究努力才能充分发挥这一潜力。其次，此次针对新冠肺炎迅速部署的应对措施，包括疾病检测和潜在治疗，都是之前大学科科技发展的结果。这强烈主张不仅维持而且大幅增加对包括植物科学在内的基础科学的社会资金，以便我们更好地为未来的流行病和其他社会挑战做好准备。最后但同样重要的是，全球新冠肺炎危机暴露了人性的几个弱点，并在许多方面呼应了其他迫在眉睫的危机，如气候变化和粮食不安全。植物科学可以为这些问题的解决做出贡献，但这种努力需要整合到尚未建立的全球宏伟战略中。
As I write this commentary in late April 2020, the world is scrambling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19, short for Coronavirus disease 2019, is an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Globally, more than 3 million people have been infected by COVID-19 and over 200 000 people have died of this disease. Normal lives of billions of people around the world are disrupted. The global economic loss is incalculable. Where I am (Massachusetts, USA), universities have closed down since mid-March. Most researchers were sent to work from home, which means in-person lab research has to be abruptly halted. The COVID-19 pandemic ruthlessly deprives us of some of the very basic activities that we take for granted living in a modern society, such as going to work, eating out with friends, and attending social gatherings. As painful as it is, COVID-19 also serves as a wake-up call that reminds us how fragile our society still is when challenged by a pandemic, and much is to be learned about infectious diseases because we still lack effective ways to eradicate them.Here, I reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of plant science. First, plants have served as the main source of medicine for humans since the beginning of our species. Some of the earliest modern medicines are indeed plant natural products for treating infectious diseases. Plants have a lot to offer for treating COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, but it will require interdisciplinary research efforts to fully realize this potential. Second, the countermeasures that were quickly deployed against COVID-19 this time, including disease detection and potential treatments, are resulted from previous science and technology development in broad disciplines. This strongly advocates for not just maintaining but significantly increasing societal funding into basic sciences, including plant science, in order to better prepare us for future pandemics and other societal challenges. Last but not least, the global COVID-19 crisis has exposed several weaknesses of human nature, and in many ways echoes other looming crises, such as climate change and food insecurity. Plant science could contribute to the solutions of these problems, but such effort needs to be integrated into a global grand strategy yet to be established.