Two vaccine projects against the COVID-19 produces an immune response

Photo: JOEL SAGET Agence France-Presse
The first, developed by the university of Oxford in partnership with AstraZeneca, has generated a “strong immune response” in a trial on over 1,000 patients.

The Associated Press and

Agence France-Presse

11: 12 a.m.

• Health

Two vaccine projects against the COVID-19, a briton and a chinese, have produced a substantial immune response and demonstrated their safety for the patients, according to the results of two separate clinical trials, published Monday in the british medical journal The Lancet.

The first, developed by the university of Oxford in partnership with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, has generated a “strong immune response” in a trial on over 1,000 patients. The second project, on which work researchers from Wuhan (China) funded by CanSino Biologics, has provoked a strong response in terms of antibody in another test at the most about 500 participants.

These clinical trials are still in a preliminary phase (phase 1/2 and phase 2), and their efficacy must be established in a test phase 3 on a number of participants, more important, before considering their large-scale commercialization.

These results were very expected: many researchers and laboratories in the world engaged in a race against the clock to find a safe and effective vaccine against the COVID-19.

“If our vaccine is effective, it is a promising option, because this type of vaccine can be manufactured easily on a large scale,” said Sarah Gilbert, a researcher at the university of Oxford.

The vaccine of Oxford and CanSino are based on an adenovirus, as amended, which does not replicate, which makes them safer especially for patients fragile.

None of the trials reported any serious adverse effects. The side effects observed were fever, fatigue, and pain at the vaccine injection site.

Double immune response on the british side

The british scientists have started testing the vaccine in April at a thousand subjects, half of whom who have received the experimental vaccine. Such tests are designed to assess the safety of the product and see whether it causes an immune response, but can’t determine if it confers real protection.

But in the study published on Monday by the prestigious medical journal Lancet, the researchers announced that their experimental vaccine elicited in subjects 18-55 years of age who have received a dual immune response that lasted at least two months after vaccination.

Dr. Adrian Hill, who is director of the Institute Jenner of the University of Oxford, and was especially delighted that the vaccine has caused a reaction on the part of both branches of the immune system.

Not only antibodies have been produced, said dr. Hill, but the organization has also sent T-cells attack and destroy the coronavirus.

The experimental vaccine did cause a few minor side effects such as fever, chills, and muscle pain in some participants.

New clinical trials involving about 10,000 people in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa are ongoing. Another clinical trial of approximately 30 000 participants, will be launched in the United States shortly.

Dr. Hill believes that researchers should have enough data by the end of the year to determine whether a mass vaccination campaign should be launched.

He added that the vaccine seems to produce antibody levels comparable to those found in people who are recovering from the COVID-19. The T cells are expected to provide additional protection, he hoped.

The vaccine of Oxford uses a harmless virus to introduce the spike protein of the coronavirus in the body.

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which collaborates with Oxford, is committed to produce two billion doses of the vaccine, but dr. Hill has advised that this will not be enough.