Friday, August 14, 2020

Vaccine for major common cold virus could be ready for use by 2024


right now it is the prime research target and it may well succeed. Certainly surprising paths have opened up, not least quinine to defeat cancers.

right now it is the heat of intensity driving us forward.

As noted, the common cold actually suppresses cancer and this has to be integrated as well..


Vaccine for major common cold virus could be ready for use by 2024



Respiratory syncytial virus particles (blue) in human lung cells


A vaccine that protects against one of the main common cold viruses has been shown to be safe and effective in a clinical trial and could be available by 2024.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is so contagious that more than 90 per cent of people have experienced their first infection by the age of 2. It usually causes cold symptoms but can lead to severe illness in young children and older people. Globally, around 60,000 children under the age of 5 and 14,000 people over the age of 65 die each year after contracting the virus.



Developing vaccines against RSV and other respiratory viruses has been challenging because the respiratory tract, which includes the nostrils and throat, is a surface exposed to the external rather than internal environment, says Kirsten Spann at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, who wasn’t involved in the clinical trial.



“It’s harder for antiviral antibodies in the blood to reach viruses in the respiratory tract, or even know they are there, because there is some physical separation,” she says.

This also explains why we can get RSV and other cold viruses over and over again, says Spann.

In recent years, however, there has been rapid progress in finding new ways to boost immunity against respiratory viruses.

Several RSV vaccines are being tested in clinical trials, including one made by German company Bavarian Nordic. Its vaccine is designed to build immunity against RSV by exposing the body to five small fragments of the virus.

In a clinical trial involving 420 adults aged 55 and older, a single injection of the vaccine in the upper arm tripled the levels of RSV-fighting antibodies inside the nose and caused no serious side effects.

This immune response lasted for six months – enough to cover a winter cold season – and was restored with a booster shot at 12 months.



The results are promising, but more research is needed to see if the immune response is strong enough to prevent RSV infections, says Spann.

Bavarian Nordic is now planning a bigger clinical trial of its RSV vaccine that is scheduled to begin in 2021 and will involve more than 12,000 adults. If the results are positive, the company hopes to make the vaccine available by 2024. The firm plans to offer the vaccine to children too, but not until it has passed clinical trials involving people in this age range.

Vaccines for other cold viruses are also in development. US company Moderna, one of the leading covid-19 vaccine developers, is working on a vaccine to protect children against human metapneumovirus and parainfluenza viruses.

It is worth vaccinating against as many cold viruses as possible because infections in early life can increase the risk of developing asthma, says Spann.

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