Global race for vaccine lifts expert
A renowned New Zealand expert in viral immunology says he’s encouraged at rapid global efforts to find a vaccine against Covid-19.
But Professor Graham Le Gros still expects the process will be lengthy, given the time and care needed to ensure a vaccine will be safe.
Le Gros, the director of Wellington’s Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, said the most promising aspect was that antibodies appeared to be able to neutralise the virus.
“I have every faith that making an effective vaccine for this novel coronavirus is possible,” he said.
“While there is plenty of news about work under way towards a vaccine, even the most optimistic predictions from top scientists put a safe and effective vaccine that can be mass-produced at least 18 months away.”
There also remained a few tricky aspects of the virus, including how it infected people and effectively hid from the immune system.
“We don’t know whether or how the virus will evolve and we don’t know whether there’s protective immunity once you’ve had infection.
“What is essential now is global, collaborative research to understand this virus, and for communities globally to follow health guidelines to minimise the virus’ impact.”
One potential solution, developed by University of Pittsburgh scientists, was tested in mice through a fingertip-sized patch and was found to produce virus-specific antibodies in quantities great enough to stop it.
And researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne have shown how the body can fight the virus and recover from the infection.
By testing blood samples of a healthy woman in her 40s, who had mild-to-moderate symptoms of Covid-19, scientists were able to observe an immune response across different cell types, which could also prove the secret to developing a new vaccine.
Scientists at California’s Scripps Research Institute had used an antibody recovered from a survivor of the Sars epidemic in the early 2000s to reveal a potential vulnerability in the new coronavirus.
That also pointed to the possibility that other antibodies linked to Sars may also hold the key to neutralising Covid-19.
“But what we don’t know is how parts of the immune response to the virus works at different stages of life,” said Le Gros, who is involved in a fledgling New Zealand effort to make a vaccine.