British coronavirus vaccine boosts immune response in early tests

London-Scientists at Oxford University say they are Coronavirus Vaccines have been shown in early trials to provoke a protective immune response in hundreds of people who fire.

British researchers began testing the vaccine in April with about 1,000 people, half of whom got the vaccine. These early trials are aimed at assessing safety and ascertaining what immune response was triggered, but it is unclear if the vaccine really protects.

Scientists said in a study published Monday in Lancet Monday that their COVID-19 vaccine produced a double immune response in people aged 18 to 55 years who had been at least two months after immunization. He said he discovered what caused it.

“Almost everyone has a good immune response,” said Dr Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University. “What makes this vaccine particularly successful is to provoke both arms of the immune system,” he said.

Hill said neutralizing antibodies, the key molecules that block infection, are produced. In addition, the vaccine also causes a reaction in the body’s T cells, helping to destroy the cells hijacked by the virus.

The COVID-19 vaccine more frequently caused mild side effects such as fever, chills, and muscle aches than those who received the control meningitis vaccine.

Hill said large-scale trials evaluating the efficacy of the vaccine are still underway, including about 10,000 people in the UK and participants in South Africa and Brazil. Another large trial is about to begin in the United States, aiming to enroll about 30,000 people.

The speed at which scientists determine the efficacy of a vaccine depends largely on how many transmissions there are, but Hill says that with sufficient data to prove the efficacy of the vaccine, part of the UK Vaccination of high-risk groups in the United States was predicted to begin in December.

He said the vaccine appeared to produce levels of antibody comparable to those produced by people who recovered from COVID-19 infections, hoping that the T cell response would provide additional protection.

“There is growing evidence that having a T cell response and antibodies may be very important in controlling COVID-19,” Hill said. He suggested that the immune response may be enhanced after the second dose. In a small number of people, their trial tested two doses given approximately every 4 weeks.

Hill said the Oxford vaccine was designed to reduce illness and transmission. It uses an innocuous virus (designed to prevent the chimpanzee cold virus from spreading), which carries the coronavirus spike proteins into the body, causing a reaction in the immune system.

Hill said Oxford has partnered with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to manufacture vaccines globally, and the company has already promised to produce 2 billion doses.

“Even two billion doses may not be enough,” he said, given the surge in infections around the world, the importance of having multiple shots to fight coronaviruses. Emphasized. “I find it extremely difficult to control this pandemic without a vaccine.”

Hill will also conduct ethically controversial “challenge” trials in which researchers will determine whether the vaccine is effective by intentionally infecting the vaccine with COVID-19 by the end of 2020. I am considering.

“This was previously done to cause 19 different infections vaccine And so is COVID-19,” he said.

Many countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom have contracts to receive hundreds of millions of dollars of vaccine and are not yet licensed, but are expected to have their first shipment in the fall. ..

Chinese researchers also published a study on their COVID-19 vaccine at Lancet on Monday. They reported that in about 500 of their studies, an immune response was detected in the immunized people. However, they said it was impossible to determine if they were protected from the disease, as participants were not subsequently exposed to the coronavirus.

The CanSino Biologics vaccine is made similar to the Oxford vaccine, except that the Chinese shot is made with the human cold virus. Still, the Chinese government has specifically approved the use of CanSino’s vaccine while the military is exploring the final stages of research.

In an accompanying editorial, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Naor Bergief and William Moss called the results in both Oxford and China “encouragement,” but until more vaccines were tested in more populations, He said he should wait for a decision.

Bar-Zeev and Moss also called for a fair distribution of effective COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.

“Global planning is underway, but it should be supported and informed by certain local realities,” they wrote. “This is the only way we can generate the global treatment we all yearn for with these very promising first-stage randomized trial results.”

Last week, American researchers announced that the first COVID-19 vaccines tested there would boost people’s immune system, just as scientists wanted, and Shot would enter the final stages of testing. Developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna, the vaccine produced key molecules to stop the infection of volunteers who acquired it, at levels comparable to those who survived the COVID-19 infection. ..

The vaccine being developed by Pfizer also causes a double immune response similar to Oxford Shot. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech also published a promising Phase 1 report on Monday.

About 24 possibilities vaccine There are different stages of human testing around the world, and we have entered some of the late-stage tests needed to prove effectiveness.

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Lauran Neergaard, an AP medical writer in Alexandria, Virginia, contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health Sciences Department is supported by the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.

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