In a new study from The University of Manchester, researchers reported the first results of an early trial of a multivariant COVID-19 vaccine booster.
They found the booster could drive a comprehensive immune response.
They found the vaccine has strong levels of neutralizing antibodies, similar to approved mRNA vaccines, but at up to a 10-fold lower dose in the first 10 people.
They also found the vaccine, which is being trialed with the anticipated involvement of 20 people aged 60 and over, who were in good health and previously received two doses of AstraZeneca’s first-generation COVID-19 vaccine, was generally safe and well-tolerated.
The compound of the booster is a self-amplifying mRNA second-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine—or samRNA for short—which delivers antigens from both spike and non-spike proteins.
The samRNA vaccine also produced broad CD8+ T cell responses against targets from conserved SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins and boosted spike-specific T cells.
Based on results, the trial is now being expanded to 120 people, potentially enabling more rapid advancement into a later-stage trial.
The team says with the Omicron variant, viral surface proteins such as Spike are mutating at a high rate, leaving the immunity provided by Spike-dedicated vaccines vulnerable to variants containing numerous Spike mutations.
In this study, they designed COVID-19 vaccines to drive broad CD8+ T cell immunity, an additional key layer of protection against viruses.
This innovation enables the inclusion of a wide array of highly conserved viral epitopes, potentially creating an immune state that may offer more robust clinical protection against current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants and be a first step toward developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about which COVID vaccines elicits the strongest immune responses, and COVID-19 vaccine that could provide ‘border protection’ to the body.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about inexpensive heart drug that can help treat severe COVID-19, and results showing that green tea may protect your body as a vaccine.
The study is published in The Lancet. One author of the study is Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D.
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