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The research, carried out by a Chinese team, identified the ideal dose to elicit the highest immune responses in phases one and two of the tests, while looking at side effects, which were mild and disappeared within 48 hours.
The scientists emphasized that the phase three findings will be “crucial” in determining whether the immune response generated by Coronavac is sufficient to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Antenna 1
According to the study, the persistence of the antibody response should be checked in future studies to determine how long protection against the virus will last.
Since only healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 59 participated in the trials, more research will be needed in different age groups, as well as in people with a prior medical condition.
“Our results show that Coronavac can induce a rapid antibody response in approximately four weeks of immunization by administering two doses of the vaccine 14 days apart.“said study co-author Fengcai Zhu, a researcher at the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China.
“We believe that this makes the vaccine suitable for emergency use during the pandemic. However, more studies are needed to see how long the antibody response remains after vaccination,” Zhu said.Complementary reflections
The expert added that “in the long term, when the risk of covid-19 is lower, the findings suggest that giving two doses a month apart, rather than leaving two weeks apart, may be more appropriate to induce immune responses.” . stronger and potentially more durable. “
Coronavac, one of 48 novel coronavirus vaccine candidates currently in development, is based on a SARS-CoV-2 viral strain, originally isolated from a Chinese patient.
This first phase of the tests was carried out in the province of Jiangsu (China), with people without a medical history and who had not traveled to areas with a high incidence of Covid-19.
Gang Zeng, one of the authors of the research, at the Sinovac Biotech center in Beijing, noted that Coronavac “could be an attractive option (vaccine) because it can be stored in a standard refrigerator between two and eight degrees“Typical of many existing immunizations, such as influenza.
“The vaccine could also remain stable for three years, in storage, which would offer advantages for distribution in regions where access to refrigeration is difficult.“He noticed.
The authors identified some limitations in the study, such as the fact that the phase two trial did not evaluate the responses of so-called T cells (cells of the immune system), which represent another variant of the immune response to virus infections.
