UK trials for mother-of-all corona vaccine soon

August 26, 2020 16:02

The University of Cambridge on Wednesday confirmed plans to begin trials of a potential new vaccine not only against COVID-19 but all coronaviruses that may spill over from animals to humans in the future. The new vaccine candidate, DIOS-CoVax2, uses banks of genetic sequences of all known coronaviruses, including those from bats, believed to be the natural hosts of many relatives of human coronaviruses.

A vaccine that clears all trials can then be delivered pain-free without a needle into the skin through a spring-powered jet injection.

"Our approach involves 3D computer modelling of the SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] virus' structure. It uses information on the virus itself as well as its relatives -- SARS, MERS and other coronaviruses carried by animals that threaten to 'spill-over' to humans again to cause future human epidemics," said Professor Jonathan Heeney, head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics at the University of Cambridge, and founder of DIOSynVax '" a Cambridge spin-out company.

"We're looking for chinks in its armour, crucial pieces of the virus that we can use to construct the vaccine to direct the immune response in the right direction. Ultimately we aim to make a vaccine that will not only protect from SARS-CoV-2, but also other related coronaviruses that may spill over from animals to humans,"he said.

Prof Heeney said his team's strategy involves targeting those domains of the virus' structure that are absolutely critical for docking with a cell, while avoiding the parts that could make things worse. "What we end up with is a mimic, a synthetic part of the virus minus those non-essential elements that could trigger a bad immune response," he added.

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