AI-designed vaccine could give immunity against all virus 'families'
Protection against all future mutations could be provided by a single jab
Artificial intelligence technology could help to provide immunity against entire families of viruses, protecting people from all future mutations in a single vaccine, according to scientists.
Researchers say the new method could even prevent pandemics before they begin, stopping countries from being forced into lockdown and saving millions of lives
The study's “super-antigen” has been developed using machine learning to analyse past and present outbreaks to find what viruses need to survive.
A world-first trial showed that a coronavirus vaccine made using the technology is safe for humans, with more than 200 subjects set to be recruited for a second study.
Experts say the method is a “big paradigm change” from the current “reactive” system which “struggles to keep pace” as diseases evolve.
What did the study find?
Current vaccines use antigens from specific strains of virus that have already been found in human beings.
However, the new universal Sarbeco coronavirus vaccine, developed by the University of Cambridge and biotechnology company DIOSynVax, combine common features of whole virus families.
Researchers do this by taking all available genetic sequence data on coronaviruses to create a “super antigen”.
Professor Jonathan Heeney, who works in the lab of viral zoonotics at the University of Cambridge’s Veterinary Medicine department, said that the Covid pandemic taught researcher is how fast they can make vaccines, but they're still using old methods.
“This is about making one vaccine that will get them all based on their relationships.”
The expert added: "We take all these different sequences…and we think, ‘OK, what’s consistent amongst them, what’s not changing, what is essential for their life’ and that’s what we target.
"We’re targeting something in a virus family, which the virus can’t change easily.”
What's next?
A phase I trial included 49 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 50 who received the vaccine in Cambridge and Southampton.
Researchers found the jab is safe and that it triggered an immune response to not only SARS-CoV-2 and SARS, but also related bat viruses that might potentially move from animals to humans.
A phase II trial is expected to include “upwards of 200 or more people”, Prof Heeney said.
He is hopeful that the technology can be a “game changer” to give“far better, broader, and give more robust protection” from thousands of variants of viruses, such as ebola.
There is currently another epidemic of ebola happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, caused by bundibugyo virus.
The team is also looking to advance on a vaccine for bird flu, which Prof Heeney described as a “big global threat”.
Prof Saul Faust, of the University of Southampton and the trial’s chief investigator, said: “Viruses like influenza, coronaviruses and the ebola group are evolving continuously and by the time vaccines are rolled out, they may be poorly matched – the current ‘reactive’ vaccine system struggles to keep pace.
“This new class of universal vaccines are future-proofed.
“If we can develop and clinically advance this new class of vaccines before a virus outbreak begins, millions of lives could be saved, lockdowns avoided and the economy preserved.”