A cheap Covid-19 vaccine, developed under the leadership of Austrian researchers working in New York, is showing promise. In a clinical study in Thailand, test subjects who received the new “NDV-HXP-S” vector vaccine accumulated a high level of antibodies comparable to those who received the Biontech-Pfizer vaccine. The analysis has now been presented in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Classic form of affordable vaccine
The team at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, led by Peter Palese, who was born in Upper Austria, the Austrian virologist Florian Krammer and the work group of Adolfo Garcia-Sastre began to develop a vaccine at the beginning of Covid 19, which are said to cost less than a dollar per dose. Scientists have chosen a classical route in vaccine development and production.
vector vaccine
“NDV-HXP-S” is a vaccine in which a version of the spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen is introduced into the body via another virus. For their vector vaccine, the researchers use the “Newcastle Disease Virus” (NDV), which causes atypical avian flu primarily in chickens but is not dangerous for humans.
Can be administered through the nose
The vaccine, which can also be administered through the nose, has been tested for some time in the US, Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil. Trials are being carried out with two vaccine variants, a live vaccine and another with modified and inactivated NDV viruses, the scientists write in the paper.
210 study participants in Thailand
In the phase I study in Thailand, 210 volunteers received either the inactivated vaccine or a placebo. The scientists then analyzed the participants’ blood for antibody levels and compared it, among other things, with that of people who were vaccinated in New York with the Biontech-Pfizer vaccine.
According to the further analysis of the clinical study, the number of antibodies and SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing activity in the blood of people vaccinated with the “NDV-HXP-S” vaccine were “comparable” with those of people who received the Biontech-Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine, according to researchers led by lead study author Juan Manuel Carreño.
“Very focused immune response”
The antibodies produced by the new vaccine mainly attacked the receptor-binding domain, that is, the region of the spike protein with which the virus binds to human cells. In contrast to the immune response developed with mRNA vaccines, in which antibodies bind to multiple protein spike regions, the vaccine involves a “very focused immune response.”
easy to create
The great advantage of the vaccine lies in the fact that it – like most influenza vaccines – can be produced in chicken eggs. As this type of production is cheaper than the production of mRNA vaccines, the “NDV-HXP-S” vaccine can be produced more easily in less developed countries.
Favorable for less developed countries
Lower costs also make the vaccine attractive to lower-middle-income countries, as Palese and Krammer have repeatedly emphasized in the past. Especially in economically less developed countries, the availability of affordable corona vaccines is still not in good condition. “NDV-HXP-S” can help here.
Easy storage
Another positive point is the possibility of nasal administration, which should lead to better protection in the upper respiratory tract and less transmission of the virus. Furthermore, the vaccine does not need to be kept frozen, the scientists write.
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