Austrian researchers working in New York have led the development of a promising low-cost corona vaccine. As part of a clinical study conducted in Thailand, subjects built up antibody levels similar to those who received the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine after receiving the new vector vaccine NDV-HXP-S.
A team from New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine led by Upper Austrian native Peter Palese, Austrian virologist Florian Krammer and Adolfo Garcia-Sastre’s working group began developing a vaccine early in the course of the disease . Covid 19 pandemic, reported to cost less than one dollar (about one euro) per dose. The scientists chose a classical route in vaccine development and production.
NDV-HXP-S is a vaccine that delivers a version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into the body via another virus. For their vector vaccine, the researchers use the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which causes atypical bird flu, mainly in chickens, but is not dangerous for humans.
Can also be administered nasally
The vaccine, which can also be administered through the nose, has been tested for some time in the US, Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil. Tests are being conducted with two vaccine variants, a live vaccine and one with inactivated, modified NDV viruses, the scientists write in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
In the phase I trial in Thailand, 210 volunteers received either the inactivated vaccine or a placebo. The researchers then analyzed the participants’ blood for antibody levels and compared it, among other things, with that of people who had been vaccinated in New York with the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine.
Vaccine is made in chicken eggs
According to the further analysis of the clinical study, the number of antibodies and the SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing activity in the blood of the people vaccinated with the “NDV-HXP-S” vaccine were “similar” to those of people who had the Biontech/Pfizer mRNA vaccine, according to the researchers led by lead author Juan Manuel Carreño.
The antibodies built up by the new vaccine mainly attacked the receptor-binding domain, ie the area on the spike protein (shown in red in the image above) that allows the virus to attach itself to human cells. Unlike the immune response built up with mRNA vaccines, where antibodies attach to different spike protein regions, the vaccine elicits a “highly targeted immune response.”
Manufacturing is cheaper
The great advantage of the vaccine is that – like most flu vaccines – it can be produced in chicken eggs. Since this type of production is less expensive than mRNA vaccine production, the NDV-HXP-S vaccine can be more easily produced in less developed countries.
The lower cost also makes 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 often not yet in order.
Can be stored unrefrigerated
NDV-HXP-S” could help here. Another plus is the possibility of nasal administration, which should lead to better protection of the upper respiratory tract and less virus transmission. In addition, the vaccine does not need to be stored frozen.
Source: Krone
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