A coronavirus vaccine trialled in 108 healthy volunteers in China safely triggered an immune response in the participants, a new study reveals.
Antibody production seen in the patients is a good sign that the vaccine may protect them from infection, but it’s too soon to say for sure.
The Chinese vaccine, made by CanSino, was the very first shot to enter clinical trials earlier this year – months ahead of human testing for the UK’s lead candidate jab – made by Oxford University – or the American top-contender, made by biotech Moderna.
Most of the people dosed with the vaccine had immune responses, although their levels of antibodies thought to neutralize the virus were relatively low. Researchers saw a stronger ramp-up of other immune compounds, called T-cells, that might also help fight the infection off.
There were side effects – primarily pain, muscle aches and fever – but they subsided within 28 days, and no serious or dangerous side effects were reported.
Promising results from the completed first human trial China’s Ad5 coronavirus vaccine place it at the front of the global race for a shot, though only by a slim margin, an expert told DailyMail.com.
It’s not yet clear whether the shot – if it proves effective – will be available in the US, and the Department of Health and Human Services had not responded to request for comment at the time of publication.
The study, conducted by collaborating universities and local CDC’s in China, recruited 108 patients ranging in age from 18 to 60, and split them into three groups the received, respectively, low, middle and high doses of the vaccine.
At the study’s start, none of the patients – who had never been infected with coronavirus – had neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Within two weeks, participants in all three dosage groups had ‘rapid binding antibody responses,’ meaning they showed signs that they were making antibodies capable of fighting coronavirus infection.
Levels of neutralizing antibodies – a type of immune cell that binds to a virus and may be able to completely block infection – were closely monitored too.
By the second week after vaccination, everyone had moderate increase in these important immune cells.
Participants blood levels of neutralizing antibodies reached their peak by the 28th day after they were injected.
Levels of these antibodies were more than twice as high among the participants who got the high dose shot, compared to those given the low dose.
While any increase in neutralizing antibodies was a significant gain over the subjects’ starting levels (zero), Dr Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, was unimpressed with the levels produced in the trial participants.
By Natalie Rahhal
Source: dailymail.co.uk
