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With more than 20 million coronaviruses worldwide, scientists run tirelessly to expand a vaccine.
Now, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have tested an experimental coronavirus vaccine in mice, with promising results.
Tests revealed that the vaccine can save you severe Covid-19 in mice after only two doses.
The vaccine is made from a soft, genetically modified virus to a Covid-19 virus gene.
Dr Michael Diamond, co-director of the study, said: “Unlike many other vaccines in development, this vaccine is made of a virus that is able to spread on a limited basis internally in the human body, meaning it is very likely to generate a strong immune response.
“Because the virus is able to replicate, it can succeed to the best degrees in the lab, so it’s simple to scale and be more burden-effective than some of the other candidate vaccines.While what we’ve shown is just evidence of concept, I think it’s very promising.
“Our vaccine candidate is being tested lately on animal models with the aim of bringing him to clinical trials as soon as possible.”
Researchers created the vaccine by genetically modifying the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), a virus that causes mild disease in humans.
They exchanged a VSV gene for the SARS-CoV-2 gene, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Overall, this resulted in a hybrid virus, VSV-SARS-CoV-2.
For the vaccine, researchers injected mice with VSV-SARS-CoV-2 or a laboratory strain of VSV to compare.
Some of the mice obtained a momentary dose of the vaccine 4 weeks later.
Three weeks after the injection, researchers took blood from the mice to check for anti-SRAS-CoV-2 antibodies.
The effects revealed peak antibody levels after a dose of the vaccine, and the levels increased 90-fold after a momentary dose.
Five weeks after the dose, researchers sprayed Covid-19 on the mouse’s nose.
Surprisingly, the vaccine found that it was opposed to pneumonia and, 4 days after infection, no infectious viruses were detected in the lungs of mice who won one or two doses of the vaccine.
While the effects are promising, researchers estimate that it may still be a few months before the vaccine is in a position to be tested in humans.
Dr Sean Whelan, co-lead of the study, said: “You will have good luck with the first COVID vaccines.
“If they produce a strong and lasting immune reaction or if there are protection concerns, there may be an opportunity for an immediate generation vaccine that can induce sterilizing immunity and disrupt the transmission cycle.”