Scientists have created a new vaccine technology that has demonstrated the ability to protect mice from a wide variety of coronaviruses, potentially preventing future disease outbreaks, including those that are currently unknown.
This innovative method of vaccine development is known as ‘proactive vaccinology’, involving the creation of a vaccine prior to the emergence of the disease.
The pathogen that causes disease is not even present yet. The new vaccine functions by teaching the body’s immune system to identify specific parts of eight different coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and others found in bats that could potentially transfer to humans and trigger a pandemic. The key to its effectiveness is that the vaccine targets specific virus regions that are also present in many related coronaviruses. By training the immune system to attack these regions, it provides protection against other coronaviruses that are not included in the vaccine, including those that have not yet been discovered. For instance,The new vaccine does not contain the SARS-CoV-1 virus, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, but it still triggers an immune response to that virus.
“Our goal is to develop a vaccine that can protect us from the next coronavirus pandemic and have it ready before the pandemic even begins,” explained Rory Hills, a graduate researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Pharmacology and the first author of the report.
He continued: “We have developed a vaccine that offers protection against a wide range of different coronaviruses — including those that we are not yet aware of.”
The findings are being published today in The journal Nature Nanotechnology.
“We don’t have to wait for new coronaviruses to emerge. We know enough about coronaviruses, and different immune responses to them, that we can get going with building protective vaccines against unknown coronaviruses now,” said Professor Mark Howarth in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Pharmacology, senior author of the report. He added: “Scientists did a great job in quickly producing an extremely effective COVID vaccine during the last pandemic, but the world still had a massive crisis with a huge number of deaths. We need to work out how.we can do even better in the future, and an important part of that is beginning to produce the vaccines in advance.”
The new ‘Quartet Nanocage’ vaccine utilizes a nanoparticle structure, which is a cluster of proteins held together by very strong interactions. These nanoparticles have chains of various viral antigens attached to them using a unique ‘protein superglue’. These chains contain multiple antigens that train the immune system to target specific areas shared by a wide range of coronaviruses.
This research showed that the new vaccine elicits a broad immune response, even in mice that were
Already immune to SARS-CoV-2.
A new vaccine has a simpler design compared to other vaccines in development, making it faster to enter clinical trials.
The technology developed has potential for use in creating vaccines for various health challenges.
The project was a collaboration between scientists at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and Caltech. It builds on previous work by the Oxford and Caltech groups to create an all-in-one vaccine against coronavirus threats. The vaccine developed by Oxford and Caltech is set to begin Phase 1 clinical trials in early 2025. However, its complex nature presents challenges in manufacturing, which could restrict large-scale production.
Traditional vaccines use a single antigen to teach the immune system to target a specific virus. This may not provide protection against a wide range of existing coronaviruses, or against newly emerging pathogens.
