To the 90th birth anniversary of Dmitry Konstantinovich Lvov, Academician of Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The article is published in Russian and English on the journal’s website: https://virusjour.elpub.ru/jour

Full Text

M.P. Chumakov: «We should make the impossible possible» (1961);
«Where DK had been, others have nothing to work on...» (1965)

Dmitry Konstantinovich Lvov (also known as DK among his associates) is a world-renowned scientist whose name is associated with establishing and developing new direction in the field of virology – molecular ecology of viruses and population genetics of arboviruses as well as studies addressing the formation of population gene pools of viruses. He applied an evolutionary approach and mathematical tools of the multiple factor analysis to creating a concept about regular patterns of virus circulation in various geographical and climatic zones of the world. Over 70 years, his scientific and organizational work has been intrinsically connected with the problem of emerging and reemerging viral infections posing a threat to biosafety.

Dmitry Lvov is the author of the unique method of ecological sensing of North Eurasia and forecasting of epidemic outbreaks in different landscape belts of Russia. He organized and took part in multiple expeditions around North Eurasia.

Dmitry Konstantinovich was born in Moscow on June 26, 1931. His father was a psychologist, educator, corresponding member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic; his mother taught Russian and literature. Parents and elder brother (was killed in a battle near Rzhev in January 1942) had a great impact on the civil and scientific development of the future researcher and patriot. This was further fortified by the years-long friendship with the families of academicians A.V. Chayanov, V.A. Engelgardt, I.P. Razenkov, Ye.M. Tareev, and other residents of Nikolina Gora, a unique community of science and art workers (the first house was built by K.I. Lvov, Dmitry’s father). In 1949, D.K. Lvov entered the Sechenov First Moscow Medical Institute, and two years later he was transferred to the Kirov Military Medical Academy (Leningrad) as a third-year student. He graduated with honors from the Academy in 1955. During his education, he received fundamental training in biology and parasitology, doing research on transmitters of Japanese and other encephalitis viruses. Almost fifty years later, in 2004, D.K. Lvov was elected Doctor Honoris Causa of the Academy.

Dmitry Lvov’s research advisers were well-known scientists, Ye.N. Pavlovsky, Sh.D. Moshkovsky, and M.P. Chumakov. Till 1957, Dmitry Lvov worked as a junior researcher at the Sanitation Institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense. After demobilization, he was admitted by the competitive examination to the position of a junior researcher at the Institute of Medical Parasitology and Tropical Medicine of the USSR Ministry of Health, where he worked up to December 1960, studying the problem of tick-borne encephalitis. Then, he was transferred to the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitis of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, where he successively passed all the stages of the academic career path – from a junior researcher to the head of the laboratory. He conducted large-scale studies in inactivated vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis and immunoprevention strategies to combat this infection. The manufacturing technology and application of the vaccine served as a prototype for a number of other vaccines, including the present-day CoviVac vaccine against COVID-19.

Since October 1967, Dmitry Konstantinovich Lvov has been working at the Ivanovsky Institute of Virology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMS). He started as the head of the Arbovirus Genetics Laboratory and from 1969 to 1987 he held several positions at the same time, being the head of the laboratory, the head of the Virus Ecology Department (to present) and the Deputy Director of Research. From 1987 to 2014, he was the Director of the Institute of Virology.

In 1960, the young scientist defended a candidate’s (Ph.D.) thesis on the Immunological Structure of the Population in Tick-Borne Encephalitis Clusters; five years later he became a doctor of medical sciences, having defended a doctoral (D.Sci.) thesis on the Immunoprophylaxis in Tick-borne Encephalitis and majoring in virology and epidemiology.

In 1975, Dmitry Konstantinovich Lvov was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, and in 1984, he became an academician of the Academy in the virology field. Since 2013, he has been an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Division of Medical Sciences).

The name of Dmitry Lvov is associated with the proof of the trans-taxonomic transmission of zoonotic viruses through the respiratory route in the human population. Under his supervision, researchers completed large-scale field and experimental studies to identify multiple zoonotic viruses belonging to different families, many of which were entered into the International Catalog of Arboviruses as new, previously unknown to science. The role of the identified viruses in human pathology was studied, and diagnostic products were developed. The previously unknown zoonotic infections were described, including infections transmitted by mosquitoes from birds (Karelian fever), bats – the aerogenous and alimentary route (Issyk-Kul fever), ticks from birds and animals (Tamdy fever, Syr-Darya Valley fever, etc.). The method of molecular ecology was used to identify the genetic makeup of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and West Nile virus (WNV), which caused massive epidemic outbreaks with high mortality rates in 1999–2002 in the South of Russia. It was found that genomes of WNV strains isolated in Russia and the United States during the above period were identical.

The ecology approach was used by D.K. Lvov to study mechanisms of origination of new pandemic viruses of influenza A. An active circulation of 15 out of 17 known influenza A viruses was discovered in natural biocenoses of Northern Eurasia, including genetic variations seen as possible predecessors of new pandemic viruses. The studies also addressed the causes and consequences of the avian influenza H5N1 imported to Northern Eurasia as well as global consequences of this process and the pathogen evolution. The spread of the new pandemic influenza A/ H1N1pdm2009 in Russia and the molecular mechanisms of lethal pneumonia development were studied.

The monitoring of the spread of various genotypes of hepatitis C virus in Russia made it possible to identify the universal prevalence of the most pathogenic genotype 1b. The studies helped understand what causes high hepatitis A, B, and E incidence rates in the population of Central Asia.

Dmitry Konstantinovich conducts research, which is significant both for science and public health; he is consistently committed to exploration and successful resolution of the problem of emerging and reemerging infections posing a threat to biological safety of the country.

The scientist of great knowledge in many fields: biology, virology, molecular ecology, epidemiology, infectious disease pathology, Dmitry Lvov has made a significant contribution to successful development, completion, and implementation of scientific programs. He has created a school of virologists, specialists in arbovirology and virus ecology.

He has authored and co-authored more than 400 fundamental research papers, including 11 monographs and manuals of general and special virology, the unique Atlas showing the spread of pathogens causing highly dangerous and poorly studied viral infections in Russia. Dmitry Konstantinovich has been a scientific adviser of more than 50 candidates and doctors of sciences. His h-index in the RSCI database is 41, in Scopus 22, and in Web of Science 21.

D.K. Lvov is the Chairman of the Special Board for Theses in Virology and Molecular Biology (medical and biological sciences) and the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Academic Board for Virology.

For many years, Dmitry Konstantinovich has been participating and coordinating an extensive range of scientific programs in virology. As the Head of the Center for the Ecology of Viral Pathogens of Infectious Diseases, he organized and took an active part in annual expeditions, regional meetings, scientific conferences and seminars of virologists, epidemiologists, and infectologists representing the healthcare sector of Russia and CIS countries, and addressing the problem of arboviruses and arboviral infections. He was an organizer and the Chairman of the Presidium of the Arboviruses, Viral Hepatitis, and 100th Anniversary of Virology international academic conferences.

The multifarious scientific activities of Dmitry Konstantinovich gained national and world-wide recognition. D.K. Lvov has a high reputation in the global scientific community. This is proved by the fact that he was elected an International Adviser to the American National Committee for Arboviruses (1976), a member of the International Committee for Study of Viruses in High Latitudes and participated in the work of taxonomy groups specializing in bunyaviruses and togaviruses. He is a member of the International Committee for Virus Taxonomy, the supervisor (representing Russia) of research on influenza, which is conducted as part of the Russian-American cooperation program on the influenza problem; he is an expert of WHO for influenza (since 1989), Chairman of the Committee for Medical Sciences and Public Health of the Pacific Science Association (1974–1982), and a member of the editorial board of two international journals. Since 1996, academician Lvov has been the editor-in-chief of Virology Issues Journal ranked in Q4 Journal Citation Reports, JCR (impact factor RSCI 0.646).

The years-long scientific and organizational work of Dmitry Konstantinovich Lvov, his contribution to the foundation and development of virological science in our country were highly appreciated by the RAMS Presidium, the Government, and the President of the Russian Federation. D.K. Lvov has been awarded the Ivanovsky Prize three times; he is a winner of the Academician Gamaleya Prize. In 1976, he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor; in 1991, he was awarded the Order of Lenin (for the foundation of a new scientific school – virus ecology – and for the development of theoretical prospects in this field); in 2012, he was awarded the Order of Honor. In 1999, Dmitry Konstantinovich became the laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in Science (for the countrywide research in emerging and reemerging infections and for the Atlas of Spread of Pathogens Causing Zoonotic Viral Infections in Russia).

Over the years the scientific, theoretical and practical, administrative, organizational and social activity of Dmitry Konstantinovich is having been as an example of honest and selfless service to the country. His warm heartedness and spiritual generosity earned him respect and deep appreciation of all those who have worked with him.

We wholeheartedly congratulate Academician Dmitry Konstantinovich Lvov on his memorable jubilee and sincerely wish him optimism, health, fulfillment of all his plans and initiatives for the benefit of national and global science.

It seems appropriate to introduce the main stages in D.K. Lvov’s research (Table).

D.K. Lvov’s main research blocks

Adrianov A.V. – Academician of the RAS, Vice President of the RAS, Moscow.

Chekhonin V.P. – Academician of the RAS, Vice President of the RAS, Moscow.

Kulchin Yu.N. – Academician of the RAS, member of the Presidium of the RAS, Moscow.

Makarov A.A. – Academician of the RAS, member of the Presidium of the RAS, Moscow.

Nigmatulin R.N. – Academician of the RAS, member of the Presidium of the RAS, Moscow.

Onishchenko G.G. – Academician of the RAS, member of the Presidium of the RAS, Deputy of the State Duma, Moscow. Tutelyan V.A. – Academician of the RAS, member of the Presidium of the RAS, Moscow.

Akimkin V.G. – Academician of the RAS, Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Rospotrebnadzor, Moscow.

Aliper T.I. – Sc.D., Prof., LLC «Vetbiohim»; National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Alkhovsky S.V. – Sc.D., National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Barinsky I.F. – Sc.D., Prof., National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Bovin N.F. – Sc.D., Prof., Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, RAS, Moscow.

Borisevich S.V. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, «48 Central Research Institute» of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Sergiev Posad.

Briko N.I. – Academician of the RAS, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow.

Burtseva E.I. – Sc.D., National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Vasilevich F.N. – Academician of the RAS, Moscow Academy of Veterinary Medicine, Moscow.

Gabibov A.B. – Academician of the RAS, Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, RAS, Moscow.

Galegov G.A. – Sc.D., Prof., National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Galkina I.V. – Ph.D., Somov Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Vladivostok.

Gerasimenko N.F. – Academician of the RAS, Deputy of the State Duma, Moscow.

Gintsburg A.L. – Academician of the RAS, National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Glotov A.G. – Sc.D., Prof., Siberian Federal Scientific Center of Agrobiotechnology of RAS, Krasnoobsk.

Grebennikova T.V. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Gulyukin M.I. – Academician of the RAS, All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine named after K.I. Scriabin and Ya.R. Kovalenko, Moscow.

Gurtsevich V.E. – Sc.D., Prof., N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Centre, Moscow.

Dyatlov I.A. – Academician of the RAS, State Research Center of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology of Rospotrebnadzor, Obolensk.

Ershov F.I. – Academician of the RAS, National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Zhirnov O.P. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Zaberezhnyy A.D. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, All-Russian Research and Technological Institute of Biological Industry, Moscow Region.

Zaitseva N.V. – Academician of the RAS, Federal Research Center of Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies of Rospotrebnadzor, Perm.

Zverev V.V. – Academician of the RAS, Mechnikov Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera, Moscow.

Zlobin V.I. – Academician of the RAS, Irkutsk State Medical University, Irkutsk.

Zuev V.A. – Sc.D., Prof., National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Ivshina I.B. – Academician of the RAS, Institute of Ecology and Genetics of Microorganisms URB RAS, Perm.

Ilyin L.A. – Academician of the RAS, Federal Medical Biophysical Center named after A.I. Burnazyan FMBA, Moscow

Karganova G.G. – Sc.D., Prof., M.P. Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of RAS, Moscow.

Kolobukhina L.V. – Sc.D., Prof., National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Kuzin A.A. – Sc.D., Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov, St. Petersburg.

Kutyrev V. V. – Academician of the RAS, Russian Research Institute «Microbe», Saratov.

Leonova G.N. – Sc.D., Prof., Somov Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Vladivostok

Lobzin Yu.V. – Academician of the RAS, Children’s research and clinical center for infectious diseases of the FMBA, St. Petersburg.

Logunov D.Yu. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Loktev V.B. – Sc.D., Prof., State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology «VECTOR», Novosibirsk.

Lukashev A.N. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, E.I. Martsinovsky Institute of Medical Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow.

Lukyanov S.A. – Academician of the RAS, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow.

Makarov Yu.A. – Academician of the RAS, Russian Agrarian University, Krasnodar.

Makarov V.V. – Sc.D., Prof., The Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), Moscow

Maleev V.V. – Academician of the RAS, Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Rospotrebnadzor, Moscow.

Manapova E.R. – Sc.D., Prof., Kazan State Medical University, Kazan.

Mikhailov M.I. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, Mechnikov Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera, Moscow.

Nedospasov S.A. – Academician of the RAS, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, RAS, Moscow

Netesov S.V. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk.

Rozhnov V.V. – Academician of the RAS, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, RAS, Moscow.

Sverdlov E.D. – Academician of the RAS, Institute of Molecular Genetics, RAS, Moscow.

Sidorov P.I. – Academician of the RAS, Northern State Medical University, Arkhangelsk.

Totolyan A.A. – Academician of the RAS, Saint Petersburg Pasteur Research Institute of Epidemiology and Mictobiology, St. Petersburg.

Uryvaev L.V. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Flint M.B. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS, Moscow.

Chumakov P.M. – Corresponding Member of the RAS, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, RAS, Moscow.

Chuchalin A.G. – Academician of the RAS, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow

Shestopalov A.M. – Sc.D., Prof., Eurasian Institute of Zoonotic Infections FRC FTM SB RAS, Novosibirsk.

Shchelkanov M.Yu. – Sc.D., Prof., Somov Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Vladivostok.

Yankovsky N.K. – Academician of the RAS, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Moscow.

From the Jubilee Celebrant

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who undersigned the jubilee presentation material. This support will help me move further along the thorny path from the bright past to, as I hope, even brighter future. I want to add the following.

I am grateful to my parents and my elder brother who was killed in the Rzhev battle; I appreciate that they taught me to be proud of my country, to respect the traditions of people living in it, to be committed to made decisions.

I am deeply thankful to my scientific advisers, academicians Ye.N. Pavlovsky, Sh.D. Moshkovsky, and M.P. Chumakov who provided fundamental training in biology, quantitative epidemiology, virology and taught how to make the impossible possible.

I express my gratitude to the unique teachers of the Kirov Military Medical Academy that gave me a start in life.

I am grateful to hundreds of my associates around the Soviet Union; shoulder to shoulder in expeditions and laboratories, sometimes at the risk of our life and health, we «hunted» new pathogens to place them for further study.

I am grateful to the government authorities that provided the possibility of conducting extensive studies in biological safety and minimization of the consequences of catastrophes resulting from emerging and reemerging infections.

It should be kept in mind that the birth of virology as a science is inextricably connected with our fellow countryman, Dmitry Iosifovich Ivanovsky. 130 years ago, he demonstrated the ability of the tobacco mosaic virus penetrate through bacterial filters, while producing infection. The symposium that we organized in St. Petersburg (1992) was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of this event, during which the commemorative medals that were punched out at the State Mint were presented to more than 60 leading virologists representing world virology. The Institute of Virology, which was founded in 1944, was named after D.I. Ivanovsky in 1950. This institute was a talent-factory for virologists from Russia and other countries. It hosted studies which made a fundamental contribution to the development of world virology. Its director, academician Viktor Mikhailovich Zhdanov spearheaded the Global Smallpox Eradication Program, which was adopted at the 11^th World Health Assembly in 1958. He pioneered the foundation of the International Union of Microbiologists (bacteriologists, virologists, mycologists) and was rightfully elected its first chairperson.

The fledging period of virology comes to an end in the late 19^th – early 20^th century with German researcher F.A. Loeffler’ description of the first filter-passing infectious agent causing foot-and-mouth disease in animals and with the discovery that yellow fever had viral etiology, as it was found by W. Reed and his team of American military medical workers. Further on and to date, the development of virology has been connected with emerging and reemerging infections.

The evolution of viruses has been inextricably entwined with the evolution of the biosphere for 3.5 billion years on our planet and, possibly, in the Universe. All human viral infections have the zoonotic origin. The population gene pools of viruses capable of causing epidemics and pandemics through the respiratory route of infection have been formed for hundreds of millions of years during the interaction with population gene pools of their main hosts – birds, rodents, bats. It was only during the last 2–5 (hominids) – 5 (hominins) million years when the population gene pools of these (and other) viruses had first possibilities of interaction with the population gene pool of human ancestors. The range of these possibilities was dramatically expanded 300–40 thousand years ago due to the first civilizations and active domestication of animals, which opened the way for trans-taxonomic transmission of pathogens of zoonotic diseases as well as for zooanthroponoses and anthroponoses. Since that period, there existed conditions for development of epidemics (epizootics) and pandemics (panzootics). This process continues, and we became witnesses of these transformations: the human immunodeficiency virus, influenza A/H1N1/pdm2009 virus, SARSCoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. The population genepool of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still being formed. Most likely that in a few years, the virus will increase its contagiousness and decrease its virulence. The description of the virus diversity in natural biomes and study of the evolutionary processes leading to trans-taxonomic transmission of viruses and emergence of new viral infections are significant and fundamental tasks that should employ modern molecular and genetic methods. These studies have great applied significance for the monitoring of emerging and reemerging infections as well as for minimization of their consequences. Apparently, critical epidemic (and epizootic) situations, which can be much more serious than COVID-19, can take place in the foreseeable future.

Today it is important, preferably at an international to start, start preparation (scientific, organizational, social) for such catastrophes, taking in account tremendous positive and negative experience of different countries in their combat against COVID-19 and other pandemics. I would like to hope that in future the efforts in this area will not lose their strength because of another «optimization».

Respectfully yours,
ДК.