Scientists working on a new Covid vaccine say they have made a huge discovery, which could change booster jabs.
Experts are working on Australia ’s first mRNA jab at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) in collaboration with the Doherty Institute. Ahead of a preclinical study, they believe they may have solved the issue causing the lessening of effectiveness of boosters as Covid viruses continue to mutate.
Researchers have tested their mRNA ‘membrane-anchored receptor-binding domain’ (mRNA RBD-TM) vaccine against older Covid vaccines, reports News.au. A report published in Molecular Therapy Methods and Clinical Development reads: “Waves of coronavirus infections resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are caused by mutants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that evade humoral immunity previously acquired by way of either vaccination or viral infection.
“Although vaccination with an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 whole-spike vaccine provides protection against serious illness, 1 , 2 boosting immunity with ancestral vaccines is ineffective at preventing infection by Omicron variants. To address this shortcoming, bivalent mRNA spike vaccines were introduced that initially encoded BA.1, and later BA.5, spike proteins in addition to the ancestral spike protein.
“To reduce the incidence of COVID-related deaths, there is a need for broad-spectrum second-generation vaccines to protect elderly and vulnerable individuals from infection by emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 or other known betacoronaviruses.”
It is hoped the work will solve the issue leading to the declining effectiveness of future vaccines. Professor Colin Pouton from MIPS said: “The concept of immune imprinting is not a new one — the same phenomenon occurs with influenza, and there is now mounting evidence of widespread imprinting attributed to exposure to ancestral Covid-19 strains.
“To address this, we developed an alternative platform designed to target SARS-CoV-2 virus mutations in the tip of the ‘spike’, otherwise known as the receptor binding domain. We found that, when administered as a third-dose booster following two doses of ancestral vaccine.”
Last month it was reported a new study found severe Covid infections may shrink cancerous tumours . The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, used mice to study complex interactions between the immune system and cancer cells.
Scientists focused on a specific white blood cell called monocytes – which play a key role in the body’s fight against viruses and other threats. In cancer patients, these monocytes can sometimes turn into cancer-friendly cells that protect the tumour from the immune system.
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