developed for two years

According to a report in the news forum, the US Army laboratory is working defense one On the vaccine for almost two years. In early 2020, it received the first DNA sequencing of the Covid-19 pathogen. The goal was to develop a vaccine that is directed not only against the existing strain, but against all possible forms of it.

The Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle COVID-19 Vaccine, SPFN for short, was first tested in animal experiments in early 2021. According to the research institute, these tests were successful. The first phase of the human study, which has tested vaccines against Omicron and other variants, concluded again this month with positive results, said Kyvan Modjarad, director of Walter Reed’s infectious diseases department, in an exclusive interview. defense one,

separate structure

Unlike existing vaccines, SpFN is manufacturing a football-shaped protein with 24 regions for its vaccine, which allows scientists to tip multiple coronavirus strains onto different sides of the protein. The immune system has to deal with many forms at the same time.

“It is very exciting for our entire team and me, including the entire army, to reach this point,” Modjarad said. The human study took longer than expected, Modjrad said, because the vaccine had to be tested on participants who were neither vaccinated nor recovered. Rising rates of vaccination and the rapid spread of Delta and Omicron variants have made this difficult.

“With Omicron there’s really no way to avoid this virus. You won’t be able to avoid it. So I think very soon the whole world will either be vaccinated or infected,” Modjrad said.

Phase 2 and Phase 3 pending

The next step is to test how well the new pan-coronavirus vaccine works in people who have been previously vaccinated or were sick. “We need to evaluate this in the real world and try to understand how the vaccine works in the large number of people who were initially vaccinated with something else or who were already sick,” said Modjarad. That said, the new vaccine is still undergoing Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies.

Nearly all 2,500 employees of the institute were involved in the nearly two-year development of the vaccine. “We decided to work longer term, focusing only on the original occurrence of SARS and instead to understand whether viruses are mutating. Variants will appear, future viruses that emerge in relation to new species. Our platform and approach will enable people to be ready for it.”