The results of the trial of a new vaccine against covid-19 developed by the army from the US – described as a “moon shot” – could arrive in a matter of days, according to an expert.
Professor Luke O’Neill has called “impressive” the preliminary results of the single-dose vaccine, which is said to protect people against all variants of the coronavirus.
According to the professor of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, the results of the first phase of the human trial should be made public “at any time”.
Professor O’Neill testified on Thursday to Newstalk: “This is now the lunar vaccine, that’s what they’re calling it; the US put all its efforts into this.”
“Can we make a vaccine that works against any variant of covid-19? And in fact [en cualquier] animal that may appear again in the next pandemic.
“In the US a great effort is being made to create what is called a ‘universal vaccine’. It’s a great goal.”
The vaccine was first developed in animals, the test results of which, according to Professor O’Neill, are impressive.
“They’ve taken the RBD…and glued it into a nanoparticle, a tiny particle, made of a thing called ferritin, stocked with lots of these RBDs,” he explained.
“It was introduced into monkeys and amazingly, it protects against SARS, the original virus, SARS-CoV-2, alpha, beta, delta and variants. omicron. He protected against all those [virus] in monkeys”.
“They are in the middle of a phase one trial in humans; in fact, at any moment we will have the data from that phase one trial”.
“It is very, very hopeful that [la] vaccine derived from the US military could be the first universal vaccine against covid-19”.
Earlier this week, Professor O’Neill noted that the new XE omicron – a mutation of the BA.1 and BA.2 strains – is 10 to 20 per cent more transmissible than the original omicron.
The oldest case of XE in Britain has a sample date of January 19, 2022, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
Professor O’Neill stated in RTE Radio 1 earlier this week: “It’s like a deck of cards being shuffled.”
“The immune system can basically recognize the same cards. Until now the concern would be that a new deck would come out, or a different type of cards, and then we could have more problems, but at the moment, as I say, it’s basically the same deck being shuffled.”
“At the moment the vaccines are stopping severe disease against any variant so far, but again we have to keep an eye on it.”
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