Adapted yellowish fever vaccine may drive back COVID-19
08 December, 2020
The genetically altered yellow fever vaccine was impressive in animals. If it passes scientific trials, the brand new vaccine could have some advantages over different SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
The research shows that the newly designed vaccine would not only drive back COVID-19 but also against yellow fever.
In addition, it appears to provide protection after a single shot, whereas SARS-CoV-2 vaccines such as the one that Pfizer and BioNTech are suffering from require two doses four weeks apart.
“This has important logistical implications, specifically for countries with a less advanced medical system,” explains Prof. Johan Neyts, from the Rega Institute at KU Leuven in Belgium. Prof. Neyts is probably the virologists who led the study.
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Prof. Neyts likewise believes that the vaccine may give long lasting immunity against COVID-19.
“It could therefore be an ideal candidate for do it again vaccinations when immunity decreases in people who have received one of the first-technology vaccines,” he says.
The study, which appears in the journal Mother nature and as a preprint, shows that a single shot of the vaccine protected hamsters against SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19. It also covered mice and monkeys.
The team is currently getting ready to conduct clinical trials of the brand new vaccine, which is provisionally called RegaVax, in 2021.
Established vaccine
The standard yellow fever vaccine, known as YF17D, has been in use for 80 years and includes a good safety track record. It provides a live, “attenuated” (weakened) strain of the yellowish fever virus.
The team at KU Leuven had used the same virus as the foundation of applicant vaccines against the Zika, Ebola, and rabies viruses.
The scientists utilize the yellow fever virus as a “vector” to provide fragments of genetic material from various other viruses. The fragments provoke a targeted immune response and long-term immunity to long term infections.
Vaccines that make use of the yellow fever virus seeing as a vector are already licensed for employ against Japanese encephalitis and dengue infections.
To create their SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, the virologists at KU Leuven inserted a genetic sequence from SARS-CoV-2 into the yellow fever virus.
The sequence is a blueprint for SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins, which give the virus its characteristic crown-like appearance. When web host cells become contaminated with the weakened yellow fever virus, they generate copies of the spike, which, subsequently, provoke an immune response.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
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