‘All-In-One’ Vaccine Could Protect Against Future Covid-19 Variants, Researchers Say

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A study by researchers at the California Institute of Technology has found that an “all-in-one” vaccine currently being developed could protect people from future variants of Covid-19, as well as SARS, MERS and new strains of coronaviruses from other animals.

Image provided by Wellcome Leap, Caltech, and Merkin Institute

key facts

The studypublished Thursday in the magazine SciencesIt was conducted by scientists at Caltech and Oxford University who are working to develop the Mosaic-8 vaccine, which is intended to provide protection for a variety of coronaviruses.

The researchers tested mice vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine as well as the Mosaic-8 vaccine and found that unvaccinated mice died when infected with SARS or Covid-19, while mice vaccinated against Covid-19 only survived the virus, but not SARS, and mice given To the mosaic 8 vaccine, both viruses survived.

The Mosaic-8 vaccine uses 60 parts from eight strains of coronaviruses, including Covid-19, that have been shown to induce a “broad spectrum” of antibodies in primates and mice genetically engineered with receptors on human-like cells to target elevated coronavirus proteins. . “

According to the study, the development of nanoparticles has the potential to mitigate viral infections caused by known and future variants of Covid-19 and other “viral fallout”.

The California Institute of Technology, which conducted the research in collaboration with WellCome Leap, is expected to begin phase 1 clinical trials over the next year using $30 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

main background

A similar experiment conducted at the California Institute of Technology last year showed that the mosaic 8 vaccine induces mice to produce antibodies that react to a variety of coronaviruses in a laboratory dish. The research comes nearly two months after a study in JAMA Network is open I found immunity to the omicron variant fading rapidly after the second and third doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines. A study published in April by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that booster shots did not prevent coronavirus spike proteins from binding to cells as well in omicron cases as they did with other strains. Two weeks ago, however, clinical data on Moderna’s booster vaccine — which targets the original Covid-19 virus and the Omicron strain — found that the booster provides a “robust” antibody response against two sub-variants of Omicron.

critical quote

“We cannot expect any viruses or viruses out of the huge numbers in animals that will evolve in the future to infect humans to cause a pandemic or another,” Pamela Björkman, a professor of biology at Caltech, said in the study.

What to watch

Pfizer and Moderna are waiting Final approval from the Food and Drug Administration on boosters for Omicron, which they plan to release this fall. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that any new enhancers need to protect people from the newest strains associated with Omicron. Pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline also announced last month that they intend to release a vaccine later this year to target the omicron variant, after studies have shown it to have a 65% efficacy rate when used as a first and second dose, and a 5% rate in adults. who were previously injured.

Huge number

20 million. That’s how many people are estimated to have saved Covid-19 vaccines within the first year of the vaccines’ release, according to a study published two weeks ago in Lancet Infectious Diseases.