United States: In the latest update, researchers have been working on the development of a vaccine that would help in fighting off strains of the COVID virus that have yet to emerge.
Key Study Insights
Rory Hills, the lead author of the study and a graduate pharmacology researcher at Cambridge, highlighted the promising outcomes in mouse trials. However, he cautioned that results in mice might not directly translate to humans.
Hills, who is a graduate pharmacology researcher at Cambridge, said, “Our focus is to create a vaccine that will protect us against the next coronavirus pandemic and have it ready before the pandemic has even started,” as US News reported.
The study, published in Nature Nanotechnology on May 6, sheds light on the proactive approach adopted by the scientists.
Innovative Vaccine Development Approach
Hills and the team are using a novel approach for vaccine development, which is called “proactive vaccinology,” where they are trying to manufacture a shot that shields against viral strains that are yet to appear.
Mark Howarth, the study senior author and Cambridge professor of pharmacology, stated, “We don’t have to wait for new coronaviruses to emerge. We know enough about coronaviruses and different immune responses to them that we can get going with building protective vaccines against unknown coronaviruses now,” as US News reported.
Nanotechnology’s Role
A crucial element of this research is nanotechnology. The vaccine works by sensitizing the human immune system to identify and attack a specific antigen present on the surface of a germ.
The Cambridge team utilized a nanoparticle, termed a Quartet Nanocage, which is a cluster of proteins bound by strong interactions. They embedded various viral antigens inside this nanocage, creating a relatively simple vaccine that could prove advantageous in future human clinical trials.
Hills said, “We’ve created a vaccine that provides protection against a broad range of different coronaviruses – including ones we don’t even know about yet,” as US News reported.
Enhancing Future Preparedness
“Scientists did a great job in quickly producing an extremely effective COVID vaccine during the last pandemic, but the world still had a massive crisis with a huge number of deaths,” he added, and “We need to work out how we can do even better than that in the future, and a powerful component of that is starting to build the vaccines in advance.”