Date: 8.5.2024
Researchers have developed a new vaccine technology that has been shown in mice to provide protection against a broad range of coronaviruses with potential for future disease outbreaks – including ones we don't even know about.
This is a new approach to vaccine development called "proactive vaccinology," where scientists build a vaccine before the disease-causing pathogen even emerges.
The new vaccine works by training the body's immune system to recognize specific regions of eight different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and several that are currently circulating in bats and have potential to jump to humans and cause a pandemic.
Key to its effectiveness is that the specific virus regions the vaccine targets also appear in many related coronaviruses. By training the immune system to attack these regions, it gives protection against other coronaviruses not represented in the vaccine – including ones that haven't even been identified yet.
For example, the new vaccine does not include the SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, yet it still induces an immune response to that virus.
"Our focus is to create a vaccine that will protect us against the next coronavirus pandemic, and have it ready before the pandemic has even started," said Rory Hills, a graduate researcher in the University of Cambridge's Department of Pharmacology and first author of the report.
Image source: Hills et al. (2024), Nature Nanotechnology.
Gate2Biotech - Biotechnology Portal - All Czech Biotechnology information in one place.
ISSN 1802-2685
This website is maintained by: CREOS CZ
© 2006 - 2024 South Bohemian Agency for Support to Innovative Enterprising (JAIP)
Interesting biotechnology content:
Biotechnology Books - Search results of biotechnology books at Google
Biotech events - Interesting events in biotech segment
New antibiotic kills pathogenic bacteria, spares healthy gut microbes
New method uses nanoparticles to reprogram exhausted immune cells