Global Biodefense June 28, 2022 A team of researchers in the US (NIAID, industry) has demonstrated that an inactivated, multivalent whole virus vaccine, delivered intramuscularly or intranasally, is broadly protective against challenges with multiple IAV HA/NA subtypes in both mice and ferrets, including challenges with IAV subtypes not contained in the vaccine. This vaccine approach indicates the feasibility of eliciting broad “universal” IAV protection and identifies a promising candidate for influenza vaccine clinical development…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Category Archives: Vaccine
Nanoparticle vaccine protects against a spectrum of COVID-19-causing variants and related viruses
Phys.org July 5, 2022 An international team of researchers (USA – Caltech, NIAID, University of Washington, Stanford, industry, the Rockefeller University, UK) chose eight different SARS-like betacoronaviruses—including SARS-CoV-2 along with seven related animal viruses that could have potential to start a pandemic in humans—and attached fragments from those eight viruses onto the nanoparticle scaffold. The idea was that such a vaccine could induce the body to produce antibodies that broadly recognize SARS-like betacoronaviruses to fight off variants in addition to those presented on the nanoparticle by targeting common characteristics of viral RBDs. In mice, antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 RBD were […]
NIH Awards $3M Grant to Albany Med for Plague Vaccine Development
Global Biodefense April 8, 2022 Under a five-year grant from NIAID researchers at Albany Medical College are working to develop a vaccine that could protect against plague. Bubonic plague is the most common naturally occurring form of the three main types of plague, which also include pneumonic plague and septicemic plague. In the U.S., plague is most common in rural areas of the southwest, particularly New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. It is treated with antibiotics. There is no vaccine currently available that provides long-term defense against it. While plague in humans is relatively rare, there strains that are resistant to […]
Universal flu vaccine candidate
Science Daily March 30, 2022 The highly conserved 24–amino acid ectodomain of M2 protein (M2e) is a leading candidate for a universal flu vaccine. However, its poor immunogenicity has been a major roadblock in its clinical development. An international team of researchers (Singapore, Australia) successfully leveraged a novel vaccine platform to deliver M2e to immune cells. This allowed them to prove that a single shot immunization containing M2e was able to trigger long-lasting immune responses that could protect effectively against multiple strains of the flu. They demonstrated that this approach significantly enhanced protective immune responses in the context of pre-existing […]
New study boosts hope for a broad vaccine to combat COVID-19 variants and future coronavirus outbreaks
Science Daily August 19, 2021 Researchers in Singapore have provided data showing that potent cross-clade pan-sarbecovirus neutralizing antibodies are induced in survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1) infection who have been immunized with the BNT162b2 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. The antibodies are high-level and broad-spectrum, capable of neutralizing not only known variants of concern but also sarbecoviruses that have been identified in bats and pangolins and have the potential to cause human infection. These findings show the feasibility of a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine strategy…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Researchers discover unique ‘spider web’ mechanism that traps, kills viruses
Phys.org June 29, 2021 Injectable vaccines are designed to bolster antibodies in the blood, but those antibodies are not as prevalent at the sites where infection begins. Researchers in Canada found that neutrophils, the most abundant white blood cells in the human body, explode when they bind to pathogens coated in antibodies and release DNA outside of the cell, creating a sticky tangle which acts as a trap. Mechanisms that can stop the infection at the site where it enters our body can prevent the spread and serious complications. According to the researchers we should be thinking carefully about next […]
Intranasal influenza vaccine enhances immune response and offers broad protection
Science Daily May 3, 2021 Soluble protein vaccines are poorly immunogenic if administered by an intranasal route. A team of researchers in the US (Georgia State University, Emory University) developed an intranasal influenza vaccine using recombinant hemagglutinin (HA), a protein found on the surface of influenza viruses, as the antigen component of the vaccine. HA is integral to the ability of influenza virus to cause infection. They also created a two-dimensional nanomaterial (polyethyleneimine-functionalized graphene oxide nanoparticles) and found that it displayed potent immunoenhancing effects on influenza vaccines delivered intranasally. The study, conducted in mice and cell culture, found the nanoparticles significantly […]