KISAH Futures Anthology
Two months ago, a family of Penan tribe members, oblivious to these rules, had come to Long Lama to barter with a tradesman. Under the new rules, they were forced to stay with the tradesman until the lockdown was lifted. When the tradesman began developing respiratory symptoms a week later, the two families were tested daily for two weeks. While every one of the tradesman’s family members eventually fell ill with the virus, the Penan family had the doctors perplexed. It seemed that despite being in close proximity with the infected group the whole time, even freely sharing meals and amenities, every one of the Penans had tested negative for the antibody, RNA, and antigen. “Even RNA?” Professor Hisham could still remember his conversation with the director of Sarawak General Hospital, Dr. Roland. “But that would mean that the virus, upon contact with host cells, has failed to enter and replicate.” “Yes, and we know how rare that is with this particular virus.” “Send me the swabs and the blood samples of this family. We need to take a good look.” The answer came two weeks ago. Professor Hisham had conducted genome sequencing on the DNA of all seven Penans in his lab in Universiti Malaya and the results had opened up an unexpected possibility of new cures. The Penans, it turned out, had an obscure mutation in their genes — one which suppressed the expression of a human cell receptor, hDPP4, which is tantamount for SARS-CoV-3 entry into host cells. If this gene mutation could be incorporated into gene therapy, perhaps the world could finally
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