Variant-proof vaccines — invest now for the next pandemic

As vaccine coverage surges in Israel, scientists are watching virus transmission and variants closely.The rapid development and delivery of highly effective COVID-19 vaccines less than a year after the emergence of the disease is a huge success story. This was possible, in part, because of certain properties of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that favour vaccine design — in particular, the spike protein on the virus’s surface. This prompts the body to make protective neutralizing antibodies .

A special class of protective antibodies called broadly neutralizing antibodies acts against many different strains of related virus — for example, of HIV, influenza or coronavirus. Such antibodies could be used as first-line drugs to prevent or treat viruses in a given family, including new lineages or strains that have not yet emerged. More importantly, they could be used to design vaccines against many members of a given family of viruses.

In evolutionary terms, SARS-CoV-2 is an ‘evasion-light’ pathogen. It has not had to acquire an armamentarium of molecular features to outwit immune responses in general and neutralizing antibodies in particular. This is because it currently transmits from one person to another before immune responses have developed — and, in many cases, before disease symptoms are noted.Other pathogens are ‘evasion-strong’. The extreme example is HIV.

The emergence of another pathogen with the evasion capabilities of HIV might be the worse-case scenario for a pandemic.

EricTopol Agree completely! I believe that is where these decisions are going (fwiw)!

EricTopol moderna_tx what say you

EricTopol Eric Topol? The guy who delayed the vaccines, leading to thousands of preventable deaths due to the virus?

EricTopol This is what Moderna and Pfizer claimed to have done. 'We anticipated mutations.', they said, when asked about future variants, a year aago.

EricTopol It's marketing, not science...

EricTopol Impossible !

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