New Delhi: The New Universal vaccine developed by the scientist may protect the people from future pandemics. No one knows which virus may cause the next outbreak and researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC) in the US noted that “coronaviruses remain a threat after causing the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the global COVID-19 pandemic.”
To prevent a future coronavirus pandemic, the team designed the vaccine to protect the current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and a group of coronaviruses known to make the jump from animals to humans.
According to the study published in Journal science – Sarbecoviruses, part of the large family of coronaviruses, is a priority for virologists after two caused devastating diseases in the past two decades: SARS and COVID-19.
The team’s approach started with mRNA preventive, which is similar to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines used today. Instead of including the mRNA code for only one virus, they welded together mRNA from multiple coronaviruses.
Study lead author Ralph Baric – an epidemiologist at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health said, “The vaccine has the potential to prevent outbreaks when used as a new variant is detected,”
When given to mice, the hybrid vaccine effectively generated neutralizing antibodies against multiple spike proteins — which viruses use to latch onto healthy cells — including one associated with B.1.351 variant, which was first identified in South Africa.
The research includes data from mice infected with SARS-CoV and related coronaviruses and the vaccine prevented infection and lung damage in mice.
Additional testing could lead to human clinical trials next year, the researchers said.
“Our findings look bright for the future because they suggest we can design more universal pan coronavirus vaccines to proactively guard against viruses we know are at risk for emerging in humans,” said another lead author David Martinez, a postdoctoral researcher at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
“With this strategy, perhaps we can prevent a SARS-CoV-3,” Martinez said.
According to the data of worldometers, the world has reported around 18 crore cases of coronavirus and around 38.9 lakh people have lost their lives after got infected.
