https://arab.news/ns8xj
- Diosynvax’s technology is different from other jabs
- It could allow humans to resist multiple coronaviruses in future
LONDON: A “variant-proof” vaccine produced in Britain has received millions in funding in the hope that it can defeat COVID-19 and future coronaviruses.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the technological breakthrough posed by the vaccine, which he said is part of the “next generation of vaccines” while opening a conference for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
The coalition is set to donate some £32 million ($42 million) to support the production of the vaccine, which is being made by Diosynvax, an organization born out of Cambridge University.
The new vaccine is one of several hopeful inoculation projects that are aimed at targeting parts of the virus that are less likely to mutate, making protection easier to secure and maintain.
“We are looking at the broad family of coronaviruses to find out what it is the virus can’t change,” said Cambridge Prof. Jonathan Heeney.
His team are hoping to target the immutable sections of the virus. “These are invariable parts of the virus that it can’t alter without killing itself — or at least impairing its ability to replicate,” he said.
If this is achieved, it would protect the inoculated against variants of COVID-19 but also future coronaviruses, a level of biosecurity that many are keen to enhance as the world becomes more alert to pandemic preparedness.
The technology produced at Diosynvax is different to that of most COVID-19 vaccines, which introduce the coronavirus spike protein into our bodies so that they can recognize the spike and resist it when an infection becomes likely.
But researchers said this style of protection inspired the virus to adapt to evade resistance through regularly changing its spike protein.
“All the vaccines we are still using now are based on the Wuhan sequence from January 2020,” said Heeney.
“No wonder we are having to boost and boost and boost — because we are losing efficacy as the virus moves away from that sequence.”
If the new vaccine, which uses a different style of protein, is proved to be effective, it could allow humans to resist multiple coronaviruses in the future.
Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of Cepi, said: “Coronaviruses have now proven their pandemic potential, so it’s imperative for global health security that we invest in R&D now to future-proof the world against the threat of coronaviruses.”
Heeney said even if another coronavirus does not appear, it is still useful to be prepared. “We’re also targeting two of the common colds that we get,” he added.
“If we can keep people at work for an extra week of the year, when they would have been ill with the common cold, then that’s beneficial too.”