Researchers confirm newly developed inhaled vaccine delivers broad
protection against SARS-CoV-2, variants of concern

Date:
February 9, 2022
Source:
McMaster University
Summary:
Scientists who have developed an inhaled form of COVID vaccine have
confirmed it can provide broad, long-lasting protection against
the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern. The
research reveals the immune mechanisms and significant benefits
of vaccines being delivered directly into the respiratory tract,
rather than by traditional injection.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Scientists at McMaster University who have developed an inhaled form of
COVID vaccine have confirmed it can provide broad, long-lasting protection against the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern.


==========================================================================
The research, recently published in the journal Cell, reveals the immune mechanisms and significant benefits of vaccines being delivered directly
into the respiratory tract, rather than by traditional injection.

Because inhaled vaccines target the lungs and upper airways where
respiratory viruses first enter the body, they are far more effective
at inducing a protective immune response, the researchers report.

The reported preclinical study, which was conducted on animal models,
has provided the critical proof of concept to enable a Phase 1 clinical
trial that is currently under way to evaluate inhaled aerosol vaccines in healthy adults who had already received two doses of a COVID mRNA vaccine.

The tested COVID vaccine strategy was built upon a robust tuberculosis
vaccine research program established by Zhou Xing, a co-lead author of
the new study and a professor at the McMaster Immunology Research Centre
and Department of Medicine.

"What we've discovered from many years' research is that the vaccine
delivered into the lung induces all-around protective respiratory mucosal immunity, a property that the injected vaccine is lacking," Xing says.



========================================================================== Currently authorized COVID vaccines are all injected.

"We wanted, first and foremost, to design a vaccine that would work well against any variant," explains the study's co-lead author Matthew Miller,
an associate professor at McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research.

The McMaster COVID vaccine represents one of only a handful developed in Canada. The urgent work is a critical mission of Canada's Global Nexus
for Pandemics and Biological Threats, which is based at McMaster.

Researchers compared two types of adenovirus platforms for the
vaccine. The viruses serve as vectors that can deliver vaccine directly
to the lungs without causing illness themselves.

"We can remain ahead of the virus with our vaccine strategy," says Miller.

"Current vaccines are limited because they will need to be updated
and will always be chasing the virus." Both types of the new McMaster
vaccine are effective against highly transmissible variants because they
are designed to target three parts of the virus, including two that are
highly conserved among coronaviruses and do not mutate as quickly as
spike. All COVID vaccines currently approved in Canada target only the
spike protein, which has shown a remarkable ability to mutate.



========================================================================== "This vaccine might also provide pre-emptive protection against a future pandemic, and that's really important because as we've seen during this pandemic -- and as we saw in 2009 with the swine flu -- even when we
are able to rapidly make a vaccine for a pandemic virus, it's already
way too late.

Millions of people died, even though we were able to make a vaccine in
record time," says Miller.

"We have revealed in our report that besides neutralizing antibodies
and T cell immunity, the vaccine delivered into the lungs stimulates a
unique form of immunity known as trained innate immunity, which is able
to provide very broad protection against many lung pathogens besides SARS-CoV-2," Xing adds.

In additional to being needle and pain-free, an inhaled vaccine is so
efficient at targeting the lungs and upper airways that it can achieve
maximum protection with a small fraction of the dose of current vaccines
-- possibly as little as 1 per cent -- meaning a single batch of vaccine
could go 100 times further, the researchers say.

"This pandemic has shown us that vaccine supply can be a huge challenge.

Demonstrating that this alternative delivery method can significantly
extend vaccine supply could be a game changer, particularly in a pandemic setting," says Brian Lichty, an associate professor in the Department
of Medicine who co- led the preclinical study along with Miller, Xing
and the senior trainees Sam Afkhami and Michael D'Agostino, who are the
joint first authors of the study.

The vaccines were manufactured at the Robert E. Fitzhenry Vector
Laboratory at McMaster University.

The research is funded by a CIHR COVID-19 Rapid Response grant.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by McMaster_University. Original written
by Michelle Donovan. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sam Afkhami, Michael R. D'Agostino, Ali Zhang, Hannah D. Stacey, Art
Marzok, Alisha Kang, Ramandeep Singh, Jegarubee Bavananthasivam,
Gluke Ye, Xiangqian Luo, Fuan Wang, Jann C. Ang, Anna Zganiacz,
Uma Sankar, Natallia Kazhdan, Joshua F.E. Koenig, Allyssa Phelps,
Steven F. Gameiro, Shangguo Tang, Manel Jordana, Yonghong Wan,
Karen L. Mossman, Mangalakumari Jeyanathan, Amy Gillgrass, Maria
Fe C. Medina, Fiona Smaill, Brian D. Lichty, Matthew S. Miller,
Zhou Xing. Respiratory mucosal delivery of next-generation COVID-19
vaccine provides robust protection against both ancestral and
variant strains of SARS-CoV-2.

Cell, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.005 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220209112136.htm

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