Existing vaccines can protect us from only past virus variants, but scientists recently tested a new vaccine that will also work against future viruses.
Scientists have successfully tested a new vaccine candidate on animal subjects that could provide protection against all existing and future coronavirus variants.
All SARS-CoV-2 virus variants have spike proteins on their surface, which allows them to enter and infect host cells. Currently availableThis is because the spike proteins keep on changing as the virus undergoes mutation. So, by the time a vaccine targeting a specific spike protein becomes available, a new variant of the virus with a new spike protein emerges.
“In nature, there are lots of these viruses just waiting for an accident to happen,” Heeney said. “We wanted to come up with a vaccine that would not only protect against SARS-CoV-2, but all its relatives,” heThey developed a novel vaccine technology that combines synthetic biology, protein structure analysis, computational biology, and immune optimization.
“These optimized synthetic antigens generate broad immune responses, targeted to the key sites of the virus that can’t change easily. It opens the door for vaccines against viruses that we don’t yet know about. This is an exceptionally different vaccine technology – it’s a real turning point,” Heeney said.