Fifteen months after an attempt was made to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is preparing for a clinical trial and is looking for volunteers for a small safety study.
The Army’s vaccine candidate uses a new technology that includes a Spike Ferritin nanoparticle, or SpFN, that researchers hope will be adapted to protect any coronavirus, including those that cause colds or deadly diseases such as COVID-19, severe acute respiratory cause syndrome. or SARS, and the Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, MERS.
The WRAIR vaccine candidate has been tested in mice and monkeys and according to the institute’s officials, who are under the Army Medical Research and Development Command, it is now ready for human safety trials.
“Even before recent COVID-19 variants were identified, our team was concerned about the emergence of new coronaviruses in human populations, a threat that has accelerated in recent years,” said Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the branch emerging infectious diseases at WRAIR, said. , said in a released statement. “That’s why we need a vaccine like this: one that has the potential to protect broadly and proactively against several coronavirus species and strains.”
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The study is being conducted at the WRAIR’s clinical trial center and will enroll 72 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 55 who will be randomly assigned to placebo or experimental groups.
WRAIR will begin work on a coronavirus vaccine on January 11, 2020 – a day after Chinese researchers published the coronavirus’s genetic sequence, enabling scientists to better understand the deadly pathogen.
With the genetic makeup in mind and building on research into the coronavirus that causes Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, WRAIR scientists have developed SpFN as a protein base capable of carrying one or more ear proteins designed to block infection and elicit an immune response. and Modjarrad.
While commercial manufacturers have manufactured four different vaccines against COVID-19, three of which are currently being distributed under US emergency consent, WRAIR is playing the long game when it comes to developing a coronavirus vaccine for the future.
“We are in this for the long term,” Modjarrad said in a release. “We have designed and positioned this platform as the next generation vaccine, one that paves the way for a universal vaccine to not only protect against the current virus, but also counter future variants and stop it in its tracks before re-emerging. could cause a pandemic. “
The vaccine was developed with the support of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine.
More than 176,000 U.S. service members have tested positive for COVID-19 and 24 have died since the start of the pandemic. Another 307 civilian DoD employees, contractors and family members were also killed.
Worldwide, 132.1 million people are infected with the coronavirus and 2.8 million have died. According to Johns Hopkins University, there were nearly 30.8 million cases in America on April 4 and 556,307 U.S. deaths.
Across the Department of Defense, 2.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine – made by Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson – have been administered to U.S. troops, family members, civilian workers and other essential workers, according to the Centers for Disease. Control and prevention.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday begged Americans to get their vaccines, especially in cases where it is increasing in some areas and the spread of variants.
“We are getting more and more information about how effective these vaccines are,” Biden said. “We are making very good progress … but we are not even halfway to vaccinating 300 million Americans. We are still in a life and death race against this virus.”
– Patricia Kime can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.
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