Army develops "super vaccine" against corona - effective against many variants
Created: 01/26/2022, 11:25 am
By: Markus Hofstetter
The US Army is working on a super vaccine against the corona virus (archive photo) © Rick Docksai/imago
The effectiveness of current corona vaccines compared to variants is decreasing.
The US Army now wants to have developed a super vaccine that also covers virus mutants.
Silver Spring/Maryland – It is a dream for the world plagued by the corona virus*: a vaccine that is also effective against variants.
This dream could soon become a reality.
The US Army, or more specifically the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, appears to be well on the way to developing a market-ready vaccine that efficiently protects the body from a variety of different virus mutants.
The so-called spike ferritin nanoparticle vaccine (SpFN) is a protein vaccine similar to Novavax*.
It is based on the protein ferritin, which can store iron.
According to information from the
Defense One
portal , what is special about the protein is that it has 24 sides, similar to a soccer ball.
Theoretically, the spike protein of a different virus variant can be attached to each of these sides.
The US army is developing a super vaccine against coronavirus: the booster is also new
The spike protein is the tool used by the coronavirus to enter human cells.
The vaccines that have already been approved aim to produce antibodies that bind to this spike protein.
In this way, the virus can no longer dock onto a cell's receptors and it can no longer be infected.
In addition, T-cells are activated, which recognize cells infected by the virus in the event of a breakthrough infection* and render them harmless.
In this way, too, serious illnesses can be avoided.
Another special feature of SpFN is that, according to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, it contains the ALFQ effect enhancer developed in-house.
This should be particularly safe and effective.
Effect enhancers ensure that the body also produces enough antibodies and T cells after the vaccination.
US Army develops super vaccine against coronavirus: effectiveness in rhesus monkeys has been proven
A preclinical study published in Science Translational Medicine
in December 2021
shows that the SpFN vaccine had high efficacy in 32 rhesus monkeys.
Accordingly, the vaccine offers good protection against both the original coronavirus and the alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants*.
It is even said to be effective against the SARS-CoV-1 virus that emerged in 2002.
According to media reports , laboratory tests with samples from humans should
also have shown, according to media reports, that antibodies produced by the vaccination can also render Omicron harmless
.
Phase 1 studies started in April 2021 in 72 people aged 18 to 25 years. They were divided into three groups that received different doses of the SpFN vaccine at different intervals.
But there are no results yet.
Before a vaccine is approved, however, it has to go through three phases.
Once phase 1 has been successfully completed, there are two more to come.
US Army develops super vaccine against coronavirus: potential vaccine for poorer countries
But the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is already optimistic.
"This vaccine surpasses previous corona vaccines," says Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the institute's department of infectious diseases.
"The repeatable and ordered assembly of the coronavirus spike protein on a multifaceted nanoparticle can stimulate immunity in a way that forms a much broader protection."
In addition to the broad immune response, another advantage of the Army vaccine is that it is stable over a wide temperature range, so it does not have to be cooled in double-digit minus temperatures like the biotech vaccine*, for example.
The vaccine is therefore also suitable for poorer countries that are unable to establish cold chains.
US Army Develops Super Vaccine Against Coronavirus: Skeptics See No “Miracle Vaccine”
But there are also skeptics.
"I don't see a 'miracle vaccine' here," explains Dr.
Andreas Radbruch, immunologist and scientific director of the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin, told
T-Online
.
It remains to be seen whether this vaccine protects against all conceivable variants of SARS-CoV-2 that do not even exist today.
Radbruch does not believe that the vaccine is fundamentally superior to other vaccines currently in development, which also rely on more than just one spike protein, at least conceptually.
They are not all approved yet.
"But we shouldn't forget that a great advantage of the mRNA vaccines is that they can be adapted very quickly to new variants."
*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
