The coronavirus vaccines everyone will want if major corridors stumble

When it comes to vaccines, Peter Palese is not far behind. A virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, he pioneered the genetic techniques used to manufacture some of the billions of doses of influenza vaccine produced each year, and his team made millions of dollars to expand a vaccine. universal influenza.

Palese is also preparing a COVID-19 vaccine. It is an avian virus genetically modified to produce a protein discovered on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The vaccine fully protects mice from an experimental style of COVID-191, according to a recent preprint (studies have not yet been peer-reviewed). It also grows in bird eggs, as maximum flu shots, so production can be sped up depending on the technology shown.

Despite its potential, the Palese vaccine has struggled to gain the attention and investment necessary to advance to human trials. “We thought it would be the best thing after sliced ​​bread, and other people would blow our doors to get it. We are very disappointed,” he said.

As primary pharmaceutical and biotechnological corporations increase their COVID-19 vaccines through clinical trials and accelerate regulatory approval, dozens of oppressed vaccines like Palese’s have stagnated or are moving on a slower, more traditional path.

Scientists acknowledge that it would be a waste of resources to bring all candidates to clinical trials, but argue that it is imperative to have a diverse array of COVID-19 vaccines in development. Top favorites may just fail, only providing partial coverage or poor paints in certain age groups; Price caps and other barriers may mislead some of the leaders for large-scale deployment in low-income countries.

“Everyone needs them to succeed beyond everyone’s expectations, yet it’s wise to think about what happens if they don’t,” says Dave O’Connor, virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We want to make sure we have backup plans and support plans for backup plans. “

More than 320 COVID-19 vaccines are in development, according to a recent account through the Coalition for Innovation in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) in Oslo, a fund established to fund and coordinate vaccines against epidemics. Most of them are found in the early stages of preclinical development; several dozen are in clinical trials and only a few have begun testing efficacy in the final phase. “Everyone and their mom have a vaccine. My dogs have two vaccines,” says a scientist looking for a leading candidate. While this is smart news at first glance, it also presents challenges. The first is what applicants deserve to move on to the most demanding clinical trials: taking even a small test to verify protection and the dose is beyond the success of maximum educational groups, and small groups face an uphill battle. for their applicants to realize.

In some cases, the breakneck speed of COVID-19 vaccination efforts has created opportunities for educational groups. One of the top applicants is progressing through the University of Oxford, UK, and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (trial registration was suspended after a player developed a serious healthcare challenge, the company said September 8). The vaccine is based on a type of chimpanzee bloodless virus called adenovirus, which has been used for experimental vaccines against Ebola, malaria, and other diseases, allowing Oxford vaccinologists to temporarily tailor the platform to a COVID- vaccine. 19. Another generation includes RNA commands for a coronavirus protein, and two next-generation vaccines are in progress through corporations with experience on this platform.

But none of these technologies have yet produced licensed vaccines, and there is no guarantee that applicants will generate strong immunity against coronavirus, says Michael Diamond, a viral immunologist at the University of Washington at St. Louis. Louis, Missouri, which has two early stages of the vaccine. One2 is on a weakened cattle virus and the other3 on a chimpanzee adenovirus, such as the Oxford-AstraZeneca effort.

The Diamond adenovirus vaccine, unlike one of the leading candidates, is designed to be administered through the nose. A team led through Diamond University and Washington University cancer biologist David Curiel found3 that mice that received a single dose of the intranasal vaccine were completely SARS-CoV-2, with virtually no sign of virus. in your upper or lower respiratory tract. Mice that gained an injection of the same vaccine only partially echoed the animal knowledge of some primary candidates. This is because the intranasal vaccine elicited powerful “mucosal” immune responses that can block the virus at the site of infection in the upper respiratory tract, according to the team.

Based on those results, Diamond believes his team has “a mission” to push their vaccines into human trials, to “see if they are going to be one of the last to stay, even if they are not the last. The first there. ” His university has reached an agreement to license the intranasal vaccine to a manufacturer, but Diamond has yet to find anyone to advance his team’s farm animal virus vaccine. Pharmaceutical company Merck introduces its own vaccine based on the same virus, which is also the backbone of the Ebola vaccine the company approved in the United States and the European Union last year. Many companies “just don’t have the bandwidth, the money, the resources or the preference for more platforms, “says Diamond. ” The challenge of finding partners. “

Most of the vaccines introduced for the first approvals earned an initial investment from CEPI, which so far has spent nearly US$900 million on nine COVID-19 applicants. Government agencies, in addition to the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority (BARDA), have spent billions of dollars supporting a handful of applicants for Operation Warp Speed, but other sponsors, with their own priorities, are intervening for academics to turn their experimental vaccines into products.

While many rich countries are buying the first COVID-19 candidate vaccines, some of these groups have turned to upcoming vaccines for the rest of the world.

Neil King, a biochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and his team are preparing a nanoparticle vaccine for clinical trials, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. The effort, which King leads with structural biologist David of the University of Washington Veessler, produced a vaccine consisting of a self-assembling virus-like particle that is peppered with 60 copies of the complex protein receptor-binding domain that SARS- CoV-2 uses to enter human cells. Vaccine doses led to massive immune responses in mice4.

Jab can only be provided to low- and middle-income countries, King says. It includes “recombinant” proteins made from DNA resources, which are already used as medical products, adding insulin, blood clotting points and other vaccines, so there is massive global production capacity. “Virus-like particle” vaccines that self-assemble from these proteins also have a strong track record: existing human papillomavirus vaccines, a cause of cervical cancer and hepatitis B, are based on this technology. Clinical trials of the nanoparticle vaccine are expected to begin in December. “We don’t have a billion BARDA dollars, but we go ahead of the calendar and make sure we don’t waste time,” King says.

And last month, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, announced that it had not exclusively authorized its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate from an Indian manufacturer, Biological E in Hyderabad. The vaccine, estimated to charge around $2 according to the dose, can be used alone or to bring to life the immune reaction caused by other vaccines, said Maria Elena Bottazzi, Baylor’s vaccine scientist, who leads the vaccine effort. develop. ” Until Warp Speed vaccines show us the data, we want to start thinking about moment-generating vaccines. “

Researchers say funders want to step in to provide recommendations and money for COVID-19 vaccines, but while oppressed developers would like to see their help with vaccines end the pandemic, they are still looking for their best-funded competition to succeed. “human being, I hope none of the applicants fail, ” says King. ” I want each and every one of them to work, and I want this to happen. “

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