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While global vaccination campaigns are racing to be ahead of new variants of Covid-19, pioneering scientists have begun to allay fears of another pandemic by developing a single shot to protect against past, present and future coronaviruses.
Judge Melanie Saville, director of vaccine research and development at the Coalition for Innovation in Judge Preparation, is in charge. In fact, he has called for the creation of a vaccine that would protect against betakoronavirus viruses and any potential new strains. jump from animals to humans in the future ”.
“[The] The strategy for moving forward is two key questions, “he told the Financial Times.” What do we need to do to end this pandemic and then what do we need to do to prevent the next pandemic? “
Sars-Cov-2, which has killed nearly 4 million people in the last 4 months, is the third known beta-coronavirus that has spread to humans in at least the last 20 years. The family of viruses common to bats and rodents also includes Sars-Cov-1, which killed more than 700 people in 2003, mostly in China and Hong Kong, and Mers-Cov, first identified in Saudi Arabia and more than 850 dead since 2012.
Given that Covid-19 is unlikely to be the last coronavirus to infect humans, the development of a jab capable of protecting against these diseases has become a major focus for some scientists. And as Covid-19s continue to mutate faster than initially expected – with the recent rapid expansion of the Delta variable, first identified in India – interest in their work has increased.
In five years, the “polyvalent vaccines” that protect against different varieties of coronaviruses will remain at a very high level even against new variants, ”said Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, to UK health workers this month.
But the path to what is called a polyvalent or multivalent vaccine is fraught with challenges. Researchers have been unsuccessfully seeking a vaccine against HIV for decades – often a disease that creates new strains – and the flu jab still needs to be updated annually.
The current cultivation of Covid-19 vaccines, many of which are highly effective against the original Sars-Cov-2 strain and subsequent variants, has focused on the production of antibodies to neutralize the spinal protein used by the virus to enter human cells. The difficulty with this approach, Saville explains, is that “the virus is evolving to prevent this immune response… You need to constantly update your vaccine.”
In contrast, multivalent vaccines are often targeted at fragments of virus proteins that stimulate the immune system, known as epitopes, and specifically attack those parts of the virus that do not mutate, as well as “evolutionary pressure,” according to Saville. Many such shots are intended to stimulate the production of T cells, in addition to antibodies, which are slowly emerging as an essential part of the immune response against Covid-19.
Paul Higham, CEO of Valo Therapeutics, said that by focusing on epitopes with “very, very low” mutation rates, his multivalent vaccine was able to contain Covid-19, Sars, Mers, and “Future coronaviruses”. Higham hoped the Helsinki and Oxford companies would have the vaccine ready for clinical trials by the end of the year, adding that it would be available for public use “sometime by 2022”.
But developing vaccines that are capable of fighting multiple pathogens is very difficult. “The more distinct the composition of viruses in terms of their sequence, the more difficult it is to find antibodies that will perform the opposite action. [them]”, Explained Dennis Burton at the Scripps Research Institute in California, who has been behind the HIV vaccine for many years.
“For example, Sars-1 and Sars-2 are quite similar and we find a lot of antibodies that will play against both viruses.” He said spreading the targeting of Mers, let alone the more diverse coronaviruses of the future, was much more difficult.
CEPI’s Saville believes that artificial intelligence will need to be used to find epitopes capable of protecting against various coronaviruses, something that is increasingly prevalent in the discovery of drugs to accelerate research and development.
John Lewis, CEO of Entos Pharmaceuticals, said his company has taken an “automatic learning approach” to its multivalent vaccine. He collaborated with a specialized AI company with software that would allow them to identify “34 different epitopes of different coronavirus proteins” that would generate the strongest human T cell response.
“We use more than 90 percent protein between Sars-1 and Sars-2 and it seems to be present in other types of coronaviruses that also provide broad immunity,” he said. “They may not provide full protection, but they should provide partial protection against many varieties.” Entos, in Edmonton, Canada, expects to begin human testing in the next two months.
OSE Immunotherapeutics, a French biotechnology company, has used the AI algorithm used to develop the cancer vaccine. The technology allowed him to identify 12 epitopes targeting 11 proteins, most of them inside the virus, rather than on the surface. “Because they are inside the virus, they do not mutate or change very little,” explains Alexis Peyroles, CEO, adding that the same type of protein could be found in Sars-1 and Mers.
The owner’s Phase 1 testing has begun with the expected results in September. OSE is already “freely planning” phase 2, with financial support from the French innovation bank BPI France and a possible phase 3 test in 2022.
Peyroles said the vaccine may be especially effective for people who have had their immune systems removed that have not created antibody protection against existing vaccines. Its wider use would be as a reinforcing pan-coronavirus for everyone, which is easily adapted to consider new forms of the disease as it arises. “You would have the basis for what would remain and then add or remove new epitopes based on the new coronavirus,” he said.
VBI Vaccines, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has taken a different approach. Like current Covid-19 vaccine crops, the owner of the VBI targets the spinal protein, but has been able to elicit a broader immune response. “When we inserted the animals we made antibodies to protect against Covid-19, Sars and Mersen. That’s like making antibodies that can see red, yellow, and blue,” said chief scientist David Anderson.
“But your immune system is very flexible and you can teach them to see something that sees red and yellow, or yellow and blue ‘leading proteins.’ So now they’re seeing a shade of orange or green, which shows that you’ve basically expanded your immune response.” , he continued. “The idea is to go after the variants that these antibodies will now mutate and create over time.”
There’s no precedent for the company’s “broad-spectrum approach,” but Anderson is optimistic. The shooting has received financial support from CEPI and the Canadian government to begin human trials in the second half of this year.
VBI CEO Jeff Baxter said he could be with regulators in 12 to 14 months. “Science doesn’t always go as expected, and it’s constantly evolving as you learn more,” he said. “But it’s very exciting to think that maybe in two years’ time everyone can have a multivalent vaccine against pan-coronavirus.”
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