U.S. health officials said the first human trials to evaluate a trial vaccine against the new coronavirus have begun in Seattle, raising hope for the global fight against the disease.
But it may take another year or 18 months before a vaccine is available, after it has been tested to prove efficacy and safety.
The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by scientists and staff at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) at Moderna, a biotech company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“The open study will enroll 45 healthy adult volunteers, ages 18 to 55, for approximately 6 weeks,” the NIH said. 'The first participant received the investigational vaccine today.'
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the coronavirus and the disease it causes known as COVID-19, which has infected more than 175,000 people worldwide since it was detected in central China in late December.
The virus is estimated to have claimed 7,000 lives, the majority in China, followed by Italy.
“Finding a safe and effective vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection is an urgent public health priority,” said Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the NIH, using the technical name for the virus.
“This phase one study, launched at record speed, is an important first step towards achieving the goal.”
The Seattle study will examine the effects of different doses of intramuscular injection into the shoulder in volunteers.
Coronaviruses are spherical in shape and have 'spines' protruding from the surface, giving them a crown-like appearance. The spines bind to human cells, allowing the virus to enter.
The vaccine candidate carries the genetic information about this spike in a substance called 'messenger RNA'.
Injection with a thorn RNA makes it grow inside the body, thereby triggering an immune response, without actually infecting a person with a full-fledged virus.
Global distribution.
Pharmaceutical and research laboratories around the world are striving to develop new drugs and vaccines against the new coronavirus.
An antiviral treatment called remdesivir, developed by the American company Gilead Sciences, is already in the final stages of clinical trials in Asia, and doctors in China have said it has proven effective in fighting the disease.
But only randomized trials allow scientists to know for sure if it really helps or if patients would recover without it.
Another US pharmaceutical company, Inovio, which is making a DNA-based vaccine, said it would begin clinical trials next month.
Scientists are trying to isolate antibodies that fight coronavirus that can be injected intravenously to confer temporary immunity.
According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of COVID-19 cases are mild, 14 percent are severe, and about five percent are critical, resulting in severe respiratory illness that causes fluid to fill the lungs, which in turn impedes oxygen penetration.
Patients with mild cases recover in a week or two, while severe cases can last six or more weeks. Recent estimates show that about one percent of all infected people die.
Sources: Agence France-Presse.
