An experimental COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the American biotech firm Moderna induced antibody responses against coronavirus in all 45 participants in a human trial, an article published Tuesday showed.
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A scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells grown in the laboratory
Moderna had previously published “interim results” from its Phase 1 in the form of a press release on its website in May, which revealed that the vaccine had elicited immune responses in eight patients.
Although Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, called them “encouraging,” the scientific community had eagerly awaited the full study.
Since then, the company has moved to the next stage of its trial, involving 600 people.
The new article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The 45 participants were divided into three groups of 15 each to assess doses of 25 micrograms, 100 micrograms, and 250 micrograms.
A second dose was administered 28 days later.
After the first round, antibody levels were found to be higher with higher level doses, and after the second round, participants had higher antibody levels than most patients who had COVID-19 and they then generated their own antibodies.
More than half of the participants experienced mild or moderate side effects, although these did not reach the level at which the trial would be discontinued.
Side effects included fatigue, chills, headache, body aches, and pain at the injection site.
Three participants did not receive their second dose, including one in the 25 microgram group who developed a rash on both legs, and two (one in the 25 microgram group, one in the 250 group) who lost their window because they had COVID -19 symptoms, but his tests later came back negative.
Andrew Freedman, an infectious disease expert at Cardiff University who was not involved in the study, said the document suggested that the vaccine “may stimulate antibody production in a dose-dependent manner.”
“Importantly, the antibodies generated were able to neutralize the virus” under laboratory conditions, he added.
“Side effects experienced by more than half of the participants are quite common after other vaccines, although the ‘most serious adverse events’ experienced by three of the subjects who received the highest dose may mean that the dose is too high for take it forward, “he said. .
The Modern vaccine belongs to a new class of vaccine that uses genetic material, in the form of RNA, to encode the information necessary to cultivate the spike protein of the virus within the human body, to activate an immune response.
The spike protein is a part of the virus that it uses to invade human cells, but in itself it is relatively harmless.
ia / bgs
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