The University of Cambridge planning to begin trials of a potential new vaccine not only against Covid-19 but all coronaviruses that may spill over from animals to humans in the future. The new vaccine candidate, DIOS-CoVax2, uses banks of genetic sequences of all known coronaviruses, including those from bats, believed to be the natural hosts of many relatives of human coronaviruses.
A vaccine that clears all trials can then be delivered pain-free without a needle into the skin through a spring-powered jet injection. The team have developed libraries of computer-generated antigen structures encoded by synthetic genes that can train the human immune system to target key regions of the virus and to produce beneficial anti-viral responses. These immune responses include neutralising antibodies, which block virus infection, and T-cells, which remove virus-infected cells.
The news comes as the University of Oxford revealed that its trials of a potential vaccine against Covid-19 being developed with AstraZeneca could be put before regulators this year if scientists are able to gather enough data. The Oxford vaccine, as it is commonly known, showed early promise in the first human trial when it produced an immune response, underlining its position as one of the leading candidates in the race to help vaccinate humans against the deadly novel coronavirus.
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