If the vaccine shows a promising immune response, larger trials would be planned (representational)
London:
The first healthy volunteer has now received a coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at Imperial College London, the project team announced on Tuesday.
The clinical team, which delivered a small dose of the vaccine to the participant at a facility in West London, closely monitors the participant and reports that he is in good health with no safety concerns.
The human trials of the vaccine are also the first test of a new self-amplifying RNA (aRNA) technology.
“We have reached an important milestone in this groundbreaking study with the first dose of a safely delivered self-amplified RNA vaccine,” said Dr. Katrina Pollock, Imperial’s infectious disease department and chief researcher. of the study.
“We are now about to test the vaccine in the dose assessment phase before conducting a larger evaluation,” she said, adding that thousands of people have signed up to do part of the ongoing vaccine studies.
The Imperial College London vaccine candidate is being developed and tested as part of £ 41 million in UK government funding and an additional £ 5 million in philanthropic donations.
The team claims that it has undergone “rigorous” preclinical safety testing and that in animal studies it has been shown to be safe and has produced encouraging signs of an effective immune response.
The new RNA-based technology being tested is believed to have the potential to revolutionize vaccine development and allow scientists to respond more quickly to emerging diseases.
“The first participant marks an important milestone for our rRNA vaccine platform, which has never been tested in humans before,” said Professor Robin Shattock, Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, which directs the works.
“We are now looking forward to a rapid recruitment for the trial so that we can assess both the safety of the vaccine and its ability to produce neutralizing antibodies that would indicate an effective response against COVID-19,” he said. .
The first volunteer, who asked to remain anonymous, has now received a first dose vaccine, with a second booster dose to follow within four weeks. Several more are expected to receive a first dose in the coming days.
The clinical team will continue to closely monitor the safety of all participants and will look to see if they are producing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 virus.
At the initial stage of the trial, 15 healthy volunteers receive the vaccine – starting with a low dose and increasing to increasing doses for later volunteers – to assess safety and find the optimal dosage. Over the next few weeks, 300 healthy participants are expected to receive two doses of the vaccine.
If the vaccine is safe and has a promising immune response in humans, larger trials are expected later this year.
The Imperial College London vaccine is the UK’s second major vaccine candidate alongside a vaccine tested by the University of Oxford, also supported by the British government through its ongoing human trials.
The United Kingdom has reported 305,289 coronavirus infections to date and the death toll stands at 42,647.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
