SYDNEY – Researchers from Australia’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research revealed a new study on Tuesday, presenting a strategy for adapting COVID-19 vaccines to evolving strains of the virus.
The study, published in the Immunity journal, assessed the antibodies that may be potentially generated by future vaccines, and their effectiveness at targetting future virus strains, said Xinhua.
Professor Chris Goodnow, co-senior author and executive director of the Garvan Institute Laboratory said current strategies may lose their effectiveness over time.
“Current COVID-19 vaccines, which target the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, are highly effective at reducing disease severity and reducing transmission,” said Goodnow.
“Future variant strains, which will emerge due to the virus’s mass spread, may escape the current strategy.”
The team made a “remarkable” discovery when looking at the antibodies generated by a related virus — SARS-CoV-1, the virus responsible for the original 2003 SARS epidemic. The antibodies were able to target regions of the current COVID-19 virus that were less susceptible to mutations, meaning they could be used to develop a vaccine that would remain effective as new variants arose.
“Our work provides a guide for developing such future-proofed vaccines,” said co-senior author Professor Daniel Christ.
The team said it would be critical to prepare for strains that evade existing vaccines, which to some extent has already been demonstrated by vaccines’ lower efficacy rates against the Delta variant.
Thus far the team has developed an antibody therapy with the capacity to physically block the human receptor which the COVID virus needs to dock with before it can infect.
“To progress our proposed vaccine approach, we are now aiming to test next-generation vaccines in our preclinical models, to determine if they can generate these antibodies, which can protect against different strains of the virus,” said Goodnow.
The ultimate goal for the team is to develop a once-and-for-all vaccination that would not need to be updated for all future strains of COVID-19.
