Coronaviruses have spread from animals to people several times and triggered pandemics. A universal vaccine should help and “perhaps prevent a Sars-CoV-3”.
Frankfurt – The Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus has kept the world in suspense since the beginning of 2020. Well-working vaccines are now available, but with every new Corona variant that appears, the question arises again: Will the vaccine work this time too and immunize people sufficiently against the virus? The variants show that corona vaccines have to be variable in order to be effective against as many mutants as possible.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill have chosen the Sarbecoviruses, a subgenus of the coronaviruses that have caused pandemics in the past 20 years: Sars-CoV-2, for their work on a universal vaccine (causes Covid-19) and Sars-CoV (trigger of the Sars pandemic of 2002/2003). The team around David Martinez and Ralph Baric uses the same principle for its work that is also used in the corona vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna: mRNA. But instead of incorporating the mRNA from just one virus into the vaccine, they use mRNA from several coronaviruses.
Corona vaccine should work against several viruses at the same time
In the universal vaccine against corona, sections of the Sars-CoV and Sars-CoV-2 viruses as well as some coronaviruses that were found in bats and that have the possibility of one day jumping to humans are used.
In an animal experiment with mice, the vaccine effectively produced neutralizing antibodies against several spike proteins, according to a statement from the University of North Carolina. Antibodies were also formed against the beta variant of the coronavirus (B.1.3.5.1), which was first discovered in South Africa. The spike protein is used by coronaviruses to dock with human cells.
Universal vaccine against corona in animal experiments: “Maybe prevent a Sars-CoV-3”
“The vaccine has the potential to prevent outbreaks if you use it when a new variant emerges,” explains study author Baric. The researchers’ data show that the vaccine prevented infections and lung damage associated with Sars-CoV and related coronaviruses in mice. “Our results look promising for the future,” says lead author Martinez. “They suggest that we can develop more universal coronavirus vaccines to proactively protect ourselves from viruses that we know are at risk of occurring in humans.”
The study was published in the journal Science (DOI: 10.1126 / science.abi4506). The researchers assume that after further experimental tests, clinical studies with humans could be carried out in the coming year. Another advantage of the universal vaccine: its structure does not differ from the approved mRNA vaccines, which contain the mRNA of the wild type of Sars-CoV-2, reports the Ärzteblatt. The newly developed universal vaccine against corona could therefore be manufactured in the same way as the corona vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna. In any case, study author Martinez is optimistic: “With this strategy we can perhaps prevent a Sars-CoV-3”. (tab)
List of rubric lists: © Petra Nowack / Imago
