JAKARTA – Northwestern Medicine scientists have shown for the first time that a coronavirus vaccine and previous coronavirus infections can confer broad immunity against other similar coronaviruses. These findings establish the rationale for a universal coronavirus vaccine that could prove useful in the face of future epidemics.
“Until the advent of our study, what wasn’t clear was that if you get one coronavirus, can you have cross-protection across other coronaviruses? And we show that it is,” said lead author Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, assistant professor of microbiology-immunology at Northwestern Feinberg University School of Medicine.
The three main families of coronaviruses that cause disease in humans are Sarbecoviruses, which include the SARS-CoV-1 strain that caused the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, and SARS-CoV-2, which was responsible. on COVID-19; Embecoviruses, including OC43, which often cause the common cold; and Merbecovirus, which is the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), was first reported in 2012.
Plasma from humans vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 produces cross-reactive antibodies (providing protection) against SARS-CoV-1 and the common cold coronavirus (OC43), the study found. The study also found mice immunized with the SARS-CoV-1 vaccine developed in 2004 produced an immune response that protected them from intranasal exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Finally, this study found that previous coronavirus infections may protect against subsequent infections with other coronaviruses, as quoted from Northwestern University, Sunday (17/10/2021).
Mice that had been immunized with the COVID-19 vaccine and subsequently exposed to the common cold virus (HCoV-OC43, which is different from the SARS strain) were partially protected against the common cold, but the protection was much weaker, the study found. The reason, the scientists explain, is because both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 are genetically similar—like cousins to each other—while the common cold coronavirus is more distinct from SARS-CoV-2.
“As long as the coronavirus is associated more than 70%, the mice are protected,” said Penaloza-MacMaster. “If they are exposed to very different coronavirus families, the vaccine may provide less protection.”
Given how different each family of coronaviruses is, the answer to the question of whether there might be a universal vaccine for the coronavirus, the authors say is “probably not”. But there may be a way forward to developing vaccines for each of the coronavirus families (Sarbecovirus, Embecovirus, and Merbecovirus), they said.
“Our study helped us re-evaluate the concept of a universal coronavirus vaccine,” said Penaloza-MacMaster. “Probably none, but we might end up with generic vaccines for each of the major coronavirus families, for example the universal Sarbecovirus vaccine for SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and others related to the SARS coronavirus; or the universal Embecovirus for HCoV.” -OC43 and HKU1 that cause the common cold.” (E-4)
News Source: RRI.
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