RNA experiments leap to front in vaccine race
In the global race to beat back the coronavirus pandemic, scientists in Britain, Germany, China and the United States are pushing to develop, and possibly manufacture, millions of doses of vaccine in a completely new way.
This promising – but unproven – new generation of vaccine technologies is based on deploying a tiny snip of genetic code called messenger RNA to trigger the immune system. It has never before been approved for use.
But almost overnight, these cuttingedge RNA vaccine efforts have leaped forward as top candidates to fight covid19. Some developers plan to have tens of millions of doses ready by the end of the year.
Elegant in theory, efficacious in the laboratory but untested in the real world, the possible RNA vaccines are especially attractive because they might be cheaper, easier and faster to manufacture on a massive scale – at least one team boasts it could partner with producers in developing countries to provide millions of vials for as little as US$5 a pop.
More than 150 possible vaccines are now being developed by multinational pharmaceutical companies, academic groups and government laboratories around the world, many using traditional protocols used to make flu and other vaccines for decades.
At least 17 teams are now testing their potential vaccines in humans – and at least five of these are betting on RNA vaccines.
The RNA group has been among the first out of the gate because they can be rapidly designed on computers, using just the genetic sequence of the coronavirus that was shared online in early January.
The stakes, and risks, are enormous. ‘‘This is the greatest science experiment in vaccinology that’s ever been done,’’ said Andrew Ward, a structural biologist at the Scripps Research Institutein La Jolla, Calif. ‘‘It’s literally testing all the different technologies, and it’s going to be cool to see how this all shakes out.’’
The RNA vaccines under study come from a small laboratory at Imperial College London, from the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences in China, from three large pharmaceutical companies – Pfizer, Moderna and CureVac – and their partners.
They’re competing alongside groups pursing a slew of other methods, including the use of inactivated or killed virus or bits of the virus – a traditional strategy used against seasonal flu and other pathogens.
Among the first to begin human trials is a self-amplifying RNA vaccine developed by the British professor Robin Shattock, 57.
Within days of the virus emerging in Wuhan, China, and the genetic sequence of the coronavirus being published, Shattock and his small team at Imperial College London went to work.
In the past week, at an anonymous clinic in west London that cannot be named for security reasons, the first nine volunteers got a jab from the Imperial College vaccine.
‘‘They seem to have responded well,’’ Shattock said.
Another 300 volunteers will receive the dose over the summer. Imperial College hopes to launch a 6,000-person trial in October.