E-Paper
Oxford recruiting volunteers for speedy Covid-19 vaccine trial
Researchers are working as quickly as possible to get the vaccine ready to be used in the trial, which includes further preclinical investigations and production of a larger number of doses of the vaccine.
Researchers at the University of Oxford are working “at an unprecedented rate” to make a vaccine for coronavirus available, beginning the process to screen 510 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55 to test a new one called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.
The trial has been approved by UK regulators and ethical reviewers. Researchers are working as quickly as possible to get the vaccine ready to be used in the trial, which includes further preclinical investigations and production of a larger number of doses of the vaccine.
Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, said: “The Oxford team had exceptional experience of a rapid vaccine response, such as to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. This is an even greater challenge”.
“Vaccines are being designed from scratch and progressed at an unprecedented rate. The upcoming trial will be critical for assessing the feasibility of vaccination against COVID-19 and could lead to early deployment.”
The trial is a collaboration between the university’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group clinical teams. The vaccine is being manufactured to clinical grade standard at the Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility, the university said on Friday.
The vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine vector (ChAdOx1) and was chosen as the most suitable vaccine technology for a SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine as it can generate a strong immune response from one dose. It is not a replicating virus, so it cannot cause an ongoing infection in the vaccinated individual.
The university said this also makes it safer to give to children, the elderly and anyone with a pre-existing condition such as diabetes. Adenoviral vectors are a very well-studied vaccine type, having been used safely in thousands of subjects, from 1 week to 90 years of age, in vaccines targeting over 10 different diseases.
“Coronaviruses have club-shaped spikes on their outer coats. Immune responses from other coronavirus studies suggest that these are a good target for a vaccine. The Oxford vaccine contains the genetic sequence of this surface spike protein inside the ChAdOx1 construct”, researchers said.
“After vaccination, the surface spike protein of the coronavirus is produced, which primes the immune system to attack the coronavirus if it later infects the body”, they added.
