Progress reported on single-dose J&J vaccine; COVID-19 reinfections are considered rare

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some of the latest scientific studies on the new coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine advances through clinical trials

An experimental COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson produced 90% of the 805 volunteers against 90% of the volunteers against 90% of the volunteers against the new coronavirus in 29 days, and it increased from 57 to 100% on day . Side effects such as fever, muscle aches and pain at the injection site resolved quickly, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. To be approved by regulators, the J&J vaccine must show efficacy, reflected by a lower risk of infections and serious diseases in study participants who receive it, compared to those who do not. The efficacy data of a large-scale trial of the vaccine in the late stages will be available by February. Experts expect the vaccine to show 80% or more efficacy, exceeding the 50% regulatory approval standard, but achieve the approximately 95% in trials with already authorized vaccines from Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc with BioNTech SE . The J&J vaccine requires only a single dose, and it does not meet the cold storage requirements of the other vaccines. The likelihood of good results is “hopefully very high,” Paul Stoffels, the chief scientist of New Brunswick, New Jersey, said this week. (bit.ly/2LpBhHm)

COVID-19 offers some immunity and reinfections are considered rare

COVID-19 survivors are likely to have some degree of immune protection against the virus for at least five months, and reinfections in recovering patients are rare, with only 44 cases among 6,614 people previously infected, according to researchers conducting a large ongoing study on health care led. workers in Britain. But when people get COVID-19 a second time, they often have no symptoms, and therefore they may carry the coronavirus in their nose and throat and pass it on unconsciously, the researchers write in a report released by Public Health England on Wednesday. (PHE) for peer review. Experts have said that people who contracted COVID-19 in the first wave of the pandemic are now vulnerable to infection again. “We now know that most of those who have had the virus and developed antibodies are protected from reinfection, but it is not total and we do not yet know how long protection lasts,” said study leader Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser at PHE in London. “If you believe you have had the disease and are being protected, you can rest assured that it is highly unlikely that you will get serious infections. But there is still a risk that you could get an infection and pass it on to others. transfer.” (bit.ly/3ihkuBZ; reut.rs/3ieWorA)

Coronavirus targets cell energy engines

Researchers have discovered an important line of attacks used by the new coronavirus: it targets the mitochondria of an infected cell. These small organelles not only generate the energy that promotes the biochemical reactions of a cell, but also play important roles in immune function. “We knew that when the virus attacked cells, bad things happened – but we did not know why,” said Dr. Pinchas Cohen of the University of Southern California, whose team published its findings in the journal Scientific Reports this month. “Now we can say, if the virus attacks cells, it damages the mitochondria.” In test tube experiments, the researchers found that the virus causes ‘dramatic changes and impairment’ in the genes that regulate mitochondrial function, Cohen told Reuters. The implication, Cohen said, is that energy production in the cells and the so-called innate immunity – the body’s first line of defense against germs – are then affected. Another implication is that the fact that healthy mitochondria will help people fight the virus if they become infected. “We know that a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle promote mitochondrial health,” Cohen said, while mitochondrial function deteriorates with age and with many chronic conditions, including diabetes and heart disease. In the future, Cohen added, researchers could develop COVID-19 interventions to improve mitochondrial health. (go.nature.com/3bFlCyc)

‘Nanobody’ combinations block the coronavirus even when mutating

Combining small antibodies, called nanoparticles, into single molecules to fight the new coronavirus can be more effective than targeting them with conventional antibodies or single nanoparticles, according to a new study. These ‘multivalent’ nano-bodies – which contain multiple nan-body building blocks – “are significantly better at neutralizing viruses” and preventing them from breaking into cells, leaders Florian Schmidt and Paul-Albert König of the University of Bonn told Reuters. The fused nanolichamen “help each other so that the result is better than just the sum of the two answers.” The nanobody constructs can target the coronavirus in several areas, making it more difficult for the pathogen to develop mutations that make treatment ineffective, according to a report published Tuesday in the journal Science. While the researchers saw many mutations that enabled the coronavirus to ‘escape’ the effect of a single nano-body, we found no escape mutants that were able to replicate in the presence of those nano-bodies that were simultaneously on two different surfaces, “Schmidt and König said. A University of Bonn disarmament company, called DiosCURE, expects to test the combined nano-body molecules in humans later this year. (bit.ly/3nOvXKH)

Open tmsnrt.rs/3a5EyDh in an external browser for a Reuters image on vaccines and treatments being developed.