Covid-19 vaccine latest updates:

 Oxford’s trial on rhesus macaques shows promise; tobacco-based jab ready for human tests

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• Covid-19 vaccine latest updates: From Oxford's coronavirus vaccine trial on rhesus macaque monkeys showing promise to a vaccine made with proteins from tobacco leaves ready for human tests, the challenge to develop an injection has only intensified.

Covid-19vaccine latest updates:

While last week wereported that US firms Moderna and Novavax have moved on to the second phase of human trials in the quest for a vaccine against Covid-19, more companies have made discernible progress in the past few days. FromOxford’s coronavirus vaccine trial on rhesus macaques showing promise to a vaccine made with proteins from tobacco leaves ready for human tests, the challenge to develop an injection has only intensified even as the number of worldwide cases cross 46 lakh, including more than 3 lakh deaths.pm03.blogspot.com

For Covid-19, a vaccine is of paramount importance at this stage and there are some 100 research groups across the world racing to develop one. The World Health Organisation has also identified top 7-8 candidates for Covid-19 vaccines.

Recently, President Donald Trump said the US was working with India on developing a vaccine for Covid-19 and recognised Indian-Americans as “great” scientists and researchers, who are contributing in the development of coronavirus vaccine. “We’re also cooperating on vaccine development. Together we will beat the invisible enemy!” Trump said.

Covid-19 vaccine latest updates:

💉 A vaccine, being jointly developed by the University of Oxford and researchers from the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), has provided protection against the novel coronavirus in six rhesus macaques, paving the way for human trials, BBC reported. The vaccine helped in producing antibodies capable of fighting the virus.

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According to the report, a group of monkeys was exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. After they were given the vaccine, the six animals had less of the virus in their lungs and airways. The development holds promise as rhesus macaques have similar immune systems to humans.

The vaccine appeared to protect the animals against developing pneumonia. Moreover, the animals also didn’t develop “immune-enhanced disease” – when the vaccine triggers a worse response to a disease.

The vaccine is based on a small part of the virus’s distinctive “spike”. The idea behind the vaccine is that by getting the body to recognise a unique part of the virus, it will know how to react when it is exposed to the whole thing and produce the right antibodies to fight it off.

💉 British American Tobacco, the second largest manufacturer of cigarettes, has recently claimed that their tobacco-based vaccine against Covid-19 was now ready for human trials after getting the requisite approval from the United StatesFood and Drug Administration (FDA).

In a statement on Friday, the firm said its experimental vaccine “has been shown to produce a positive immune response” in pre-clinical testing.

The vaccine is based on an artificially built fragment of the novel coronavirus, called an “antigen”, which is inserted into tobacco plants for reproduction. “Once the plants were harvested, the antigen was then purified,” BAT had said in a statement in April.

This antigen, which is essentially a component of the novel coronavirus, would generate an immune response from the body when administered to human beings, the statement had said.

💉 An official behind the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine, being jointly developed by Oxford University and drug maker AstraZeneca, said the jab won’t be expensive and produced at a large scale.

“This not going to be an expensive vaccine. It’s going to be a single dose vaccine. It’s going to be made for global supply and it’s going to be made in many different locations,” Adrian Hill, director of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, told Reuters.

The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine was originally developed for MERS, which belongs to the coronavirus family. This vaccine would help the body recognise the “spikes” of the virus which are made of protein.

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