Coronavirus is a highly virulent and extremely mutable virus that has rapidly evolved to adjust to our body’s immune response and the vaccines developed against it. This nature of the COVID virus has called for the urgent manufacture of vaccines that can effectively combat all known strains of coronavirus. Achieving the same, the Duke Human Vaccine Institute recently announced that it has developed a single vaccine that has shown promising results against SARS-CoV-1, Sars-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV in mice.
Single Vaccine Against Multiple Coronavirus Strains
The researchers published their findings in the journal Cell Reports. The researchers found that once the vaccine was administered in mice, they did not exhibit any symptoms after contracting other SARS-like or MERS-like viruses.
Commenting on the efficacy of their recently developed vaccine, the senior author of the study, Kevin O Saunders, PhD, Associate Director, Duke Human Vaccine Institute, said, “These are pathogens that cause or have the potential to cause significant human infections and loss of life, and a single vaccine that provides protection could slow down or even prevent another pandemic.”
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To study this tri-valent vaccine, the researchers from the Duke Human Vaccine Institute received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
The current vaccines that were tested on mice also had the ability to neutralise the highly efficacious BA.1 and XBB.1.5 variants. The single tri-valent nanoparticle vaccine will be tested in humans next year and will be adjusted to fight against different COVID-19 strains, including those that have dominated since the onset of the COVID pandemic in late 2019.
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Saunders continued, “This study demonstrates proof-of-concept that a single vaccine that protects against both MERS and SARS viruses is an achievable goal. Given that one MERS and two SARS viruses have infected humans in the last two decades, the development of universal coronavirus vaccines is a global health priority.”
This latest pharmaceutical development against coronavirus offers a ray of hope, especially against COVID-19 which has been rapidly mutating every so often, making it exceptionally difficult to develop a single response that can combat each and every strain of SARS-CoV-2.
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