Covid. New vaccine effective against coronaviruses that have not yet emerged

The underlying technology also has the potential to be used in the development of vaccines to protect against many other health challenges. The work is the result of a collaboration between scientists from the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and Caltech. The developed vaccine is expected to enter phase 1 clinical trials in early 2025, but its complex nature makes it difficult to produce, which could limit large-scale production

06 MAY – Researchers from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge (GB) have developed a new vaccine technology which has been shown, so far in mice, to provide protection against a wide range of coronaviruses with the potential to cause future disease outbreaks, including those which we are not even aware of yet. This is a new approach called proactive vaccinia, in which scientists build a vaccine before the pathogen that causes the disease even emerges.

The new vaccine works by training the body’s immune system to recognize specific regions of eight different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and several that currently circulate in bats and have the potential to jump to humans and cause a pandemic. The key to its effectiveness is that the vaccine’s target viral regions also appear in many related coronaviruses. By training the immune system to attack these regions, it provides protection against other coronaviruses not represented in the vaccine, including ones that haven’t even been identified yet. For example, the new vaccine does not include the coronavirus SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2003 SARS epidemic, but it still induces an immune response to that virus.

“Our goal is to create a vaccine that protects us from the next coronavirus pandemic and to have it ready before it even begins,” he said Rory Hillsfirst author of the study, whose results were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. “We don’t have to wait for new coronaviruses to emerge. We know enough about them and their different immune responses that we can immediately start building protective vaccines against unknown coronaviruses,” he added. Mark Howarthsenior author of the report. He added: “Scientists did a great job quickly producing a highly effective COVID vaccine during the last pandemic, but the world was still in the midst of a crisis with huge numbers of deaths. We need to understand how we can do even better in the future, and a powerful component of this is to start building vaccines early.”

The new vaccine”Nanocage Quartet” is based on a structure called a nanoparticle, a ball of proteins held together by incredibly strong interactions. Chains of different viral antigens are attached to this nanoparticle thanks to a new protein superglue. Included in these chains are multiple antigens, which train the immune system to target specific regions shared across a wide range of coronaviruses. This study demonstrated that the new vaccine provokes a broad immune response, even in mice pre-immunized with SARS-CoV-2. The new vaccine has a much simpler design than other broadly protective vaccines currently in development, which researchers say should speed its path to clinical trials. The underlying technology they have developed also has the potential to be used in the development of vaccines to protect against many other health challenges. The work is the result of a collaboration between scientists from the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and Caltech. The developed vaccine is expected to enter phase 1 clinical trials in early 2025, but its complex nature makes it difficult to produce, which could limit large-scale production.

06 May 2024
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