Omicron being called a 'mild disease' is 'incorrect' says Whitty
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A new vaccine contender has passed initial safety tests in Manchester.
Limited data has been released from the current pre-print study, but experts are cautiously optimistic.
Professor of Immunology Charles Bangham said: “Although the details of the construction of the vaccine are not yet made public, and the full data from this trial are not presented, the preliminary results nevertheless look very promising.”
The safety trial was conducted on healthy adults who had already received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Professor Bangham explains that there are two primary differences between this new vaccine and those which have seen widespread use.
“First, the vaccine generates an immune response not only to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, but also some of the other proteins of the virus.
“This is important, because the other proteins differ much less between the variants of SARS-CoV-2 than the spike protein, so we would expect a better degree of cross-protection against different variants.
“These proteins are well recognized by cytotoxic (‘killer’) T cells, and since the T cell response plays a critical part in protection, especially in clearing the virus from the body, the immunity produced by the vaccine should give good cross-protection against the virus variants.”
The second benefit of the new vaccine, Bangham explains, is not to do with the immune response directly but the economics and politics of the vaccine.
“The new vaccine is based on self-amplifying RNA (samRNA).
“This amplifies itself to make large amounts of mRNA, reproducing the mRNA found in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“Because it amplifies itself, only a small dose is necessary – this should make it possible to vaccinate many more people with the same amount of the vaccine.”
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Dr Peter English, past chair of the BMA Publich Health Medicine Committee said: “It is always difficult to comment on press releases such as this one, in the absence of more data.
“By incorporating parts of the virus that are common to other coronaviruses – such as the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, and some of the common cold viruses – it may, in time, be possible to develop a ‘pan-coronavirus vaccine’, that will prevent infection (or at least, severe disease) from any coronavirus.”
The press release does not claim that this trial vaccine is such a vaccine; but they do say that it _“may offer more robust clinical protection against current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants and be a first step toward developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine”.
“Whether this particular vaccine will be such a vaccine – or will make it to market, be approved by regulators, and be widely used – will not become clear for some time. But it may be; and if it doesn’t other novel vaccines with similar benefits may well take on this role.
“The results reported are from a very small, early study. It appears to be reporting results from only the first 10 individuals studied.
“There are many hurdles before such a vaccine could be introduced for widespread use, however this is very encouraging.”
The data available for the initial trial shows levels of antibody activity consistent with first generation mRNA vaccines when used at a smaller initial dose.
No severe or undesirable side effects were reported among this initial group.
Professor Andrew Ustianowski, lead investigator for the study at the University of Manchester said: “We are increasingly realizing the importance of both the T cell response and non-spike protein targets for protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death, and to allow protection against current and future variants of the virus.
“We are excited to expand the footprint of this trial and continue working with Gritstone in the clinical development of this promising, next generation, T cell-enhanced COVID-19 vaccine.”
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