The monkeys deliberately infected with the CCP virus and receiving the Massachusetts-based experimental vaccine COVID-19 from Moderna were able to quickly clear the virus from their lungs, researchers said July 28.
A study (pdf) published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday suggested that the experimental vaccine, MRNA-1273, protected against infection in the monkeys’ lungs and noses and induced a robust immune response.
In the study of 24 monkeys, Moderna tested 10 microgram or 100 microgram doses of the vaccine against no treatment.
Both doses were shown to be effective in protecting against viral replication in the lungs and lung inflammation, and the larger dose also protects against viral replication in the animals’ noses.
Dr. Stephen Hoge of Moderna says that in a non-human primate study of the # COVID19 vaccine, data 2 days after challenge with live viruses “begins to resemble sterilizing immunity,” that is, they prevent infection entirely. , not only the manifestation of the disease (by call from Moderna now)
– Meg Tirrell (@megtirrell) July 29, 2020
All the macaques that received the experimental vaccine produced high levels of neutralizing antibodies that attack a part of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus used to invade the cells. Antibodies are a protein in the blood produced by the immune system to fight viruses and other foreign materials.
“The virus cleared very quickly in vaccinated animals,” Dr. Barney S. Graham, lead author of the report and deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The New York. Times. Graham’s scientific team worked with the American biotech firm Moderna to develop the vaccine.
Monkeys in control who did not receive the vaccine were unable to quickly get rid of the virus.
The study results are significant, Graham explained, because he suggested that the vaccinated monkeys were able to remove much of the virus from their noses and prevent it from spreading greatly.
“If you have a small infection that clears up quickly and doesn’t clear for a long time, it reduces the chance of transmission,” he said.
“I think we have the possibility of having some protection against this vaccine, but we have to do the phase 3 test to find out,” he added.
Moderna began its final trial stages on Monday to assess the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing respiratory disease in about 30,000 adult trial participants, marking the first American company to advance to phase 3 of clinical trials.
Testing for Phase 3 will be conducted at clinical research sites in the United States.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), test volunteers will be separated into two groups and given either the vaccine or the controlled placebo. Two separate 100 microgram injections of the vaccine or placebo solution will be administered to the volunteers, but will be administered 28 days apart. Also, this trial will be blind, where both volunteers and researchers will not know which one is given to whom.
Paula Liu and Reuters contributed to this report.
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