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Russian scientists released the first results of initial tests with the Sputnik V experimental vaccine, which received the go-ahead from the government last month.
In a report published in the Lancet on Friday, the vaccine’s creators said it was apparently safe and elicited an antibody reaction within three weeks in all 40 people participating in the second phase of the study.
Of course, the tests carried out on 76 adults under the age of 60 – mostly young men – are still not enough to affirm that its content will be effective in protecting the population from the coronavirus.
Part of the safety test used only men, and most of the participants were between the ages of 20 and 40, so it is unclear how effective it would be in older populations, those most at risk for serious complications of covid-19.
AP Professor Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow that created the vaccine with the help of the Defense Ministry, told reporters that it causes an immune reaction “sufficient to counteract any conceivable dose that infects (a person) with covid-19. .
“We are willing to state that the protective effect of this vaccine will be detectable and will remain at an adequate level for two years or perhaps more,” Gintsburg said, although he did not present any evidence to support his statement.
The results
According to the report in the Lancet, the tests took place in two Russian hospitals with healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, who were put into isolation once they registered for the test. They remained in the hospital for the first 28 days of the study after vaccination.
Part of the study used a frozen formulation of the vaccine and another a lyophilized variant. The scientists said the frozen version would be suitable for global supply chains while the freeze-dried version could be used in hard-to-reach areas.
The two versions used a modified version of the adenovirus that causes the common cold to carry genes for the coronavirus spike protein to prepare the body to react if attacked by a true covid-19 virus. It is a technology similar to that of the vaccines being developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics and the British one from the University of Oxford with AstraZeneca.
The Russian researchers said all 40 participants reacted with neutralizing antibodies, molecules that are crucial to blocking an infection. They also apparently caused a reaction in T lymphocytes, which destroy cells invaded by the virus.
The most common side effects were pain at the injection site, migraine, and muscle or joint pain.
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