A few years ago, it took ten years to produce a vaccine. Now it can be done in a few months.
Faster than ever, the international scientific community has mobilized in the fight against the new coronavirus that has spread from China.
When the virus was discovered in Wuhan City, Chinese scientists immediately began mapping the virus genome. Ten days later, they could share the genetic data with scientists from the rest of the world.
Since then, scientists and international authorities have been working on high pressure to understand the new virus called the 2019-nCoV , and recently US researchers from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced that they may have a vaccine ready in three months .
Scientists can beat the world record
Never before has a vaccine been able to develop so quickly, so if the schedule holds, it is a new world record.
The record so far was set when researchers of nine months developed a vaccine against the very deadly Ebola virus.
It is not at all unrealistic that this time it will succeed in three months, according to Danish vaccine researcher Anders Fomsgaard, who is a consultant at the National Serum Institute.
“You can develop a vaccine insanely fast, because the technology for making new genetic vaccines has evolved incredibly quickly in a few years,” says Anders Fomsgaard, who himself has worked with genetic vaccines – also called DNA and RNA vaccines – since 1990 ‘s.
“However, it should be said that a vaccine against the coronavirus cannot be used immediately after it is developed. The efficacy and safety of the vaccine must first be tested in humans and it is not a trivial process, ”he adds.
Vaccines are easy to make
The researchers from NIH are leaders in the field, and they use the very latest, advanced technology to produce genetic vaccines, says Anders Fomsgaard.
“You work with several different types of new modern genetic vaccines. I’m guessing that the vaccine NIAID is working to produce against the coronavirus will be developed with the same technology as the ebola vaccine, “he says.
The Ebola vaccine consists of a genetically modified harmless virus called vesicular stomatitis virus. In the lab, researchers have added a gene that expresses a protein found in the Ebola virus.
When the genetically modified vesicular stomatitis virus is injected into the blood, the immune system is trained to recognize the ebola protein, so it is ready to destroy the virus as soon as it is infected.
»It is relatively easy to produce such a vaccine and other types of DNA and RNA vaccines. The challenge is to make the vaccine so that it is powerful enough for humans, ”says Anders Fomsgaard, who has written the popular science book ‘ It’s just a virus ‘, which is about the development of vaccines.
The world community is moving along
To make a vaccine against a virus, you must know the DNA of the virus. Therefore, it was imperative that the Chinese scientists quickly and immediately shared their mapping of the coronavirus’s genetics.
The World Health Organization WHO, authorities and scientists quickly mobilized emergency preparedness, because at first no one knew how dangerous the new coronavirus was.
“It’s nice to see what the world community can do when it comes together,” says Anders Fomsgaard.
Fortunately, it has turned out that the new coronavirus is not as bad as feared. But it is spreading rapidly, and at the present time, two to three percent of those infected appear to die from the pneumonia-like symptoms caused by the virus.
“The mortality rate is three percent or lower. So the coronavirus is no longer something you shake so much in your pants. But you couldn’t know that when you started the emergency, ‘says Anders Fomsgaard.
In comparison, the mortality rate of Ebola outbreaks is 60-80 percent.
An exercise in virus readiness
Although, according to Anders Fomsgaard, the coronavirus is not as dangerous as feared, the lightning-fast global mobilization is far from wasted.
Scientists, authorities and WHO have shown that they can cooperate and move quickly when a dangerous virus spreads, he points out.
“You can see it as an exercise. If this time we succeed in producing a vaccine in just three months, we can be safer the next time something happens. Then we know that the emergency is clear, ”says Anders Fomsgaard.
“Speed is unmatched”
Usually, in scientific environments, there is a perpetual competition to come first with new drugs and vaccines. Therefore, scientists and the pharmaceutical industry usually keep data and methods secret until the products are completely finished.
When the coronavirus broke out, scientists and industry deviated from the normal procedures.
“Speed is unmatched,” says Karla Satchell, a professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in the United States, to the Washington Post .
“This is a case where we don’t care about egos and where we don’t care who comes first. We only worry about solving the problem. The flow of information has been really fast, ”the professor adds.
Already ten days after the coronavirus genome was mapped, she published with her colleagues an analysis showing that the corona virus attacks the body’s cells in the same way as the SARS virus that originated in China in 2002.
The development of a new vaccine against coronavirus is funded by the global philanthropic organization CEPI, which has just been launched in the world to boost the production and availability of new vaccines against infectious diseases. In addition to NIAID, researchers from Quensland University in Australia and the company Inovio Pharmaceuticals have received grants, CEPI writes in a press release.
Resources:
Anders Fomsgaards profil (SSI)
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