/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/eluniverso/QXWNQFBGVBBG3CDLZYQKDOC6ZA.jpg "US Army Researchers Create Vaccine Against All Variants of COVID-19 and SARS | Health | Magazine")
The Walter Reed Research Institute will soon begin clinical trials for this formula against SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.
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It would be a matter of weeks for the Walter Reed US Army Research Institute to announce the effectiveness in humans of its vaccine against COVID-19 and all its variants (too omicron), as well as previous viruses that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome.
It is the result of almost two years of work on the virus. The Army laboratory received its first DNA sequence of the virus in early 2020, and the infectious diseases area focused on producing a vaccine that could encompass all existing and potential variants.
Walter Reed’s vaccine is called SpFN (Nanopartícula Spike Ferritina) and he completed his animal tests months ago, with positive results. Phase 1 of testing with humans, focused on omicron and other variants, ended this December, again successfully, and is in its final review.
Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the infectious diseases section of Walter Reed, said in an interview with the defense and national security portal Defense One phases 2 and 3 still await them.
Unlike other vaccines, SpFN uses a protein shaped like a soccer ball, with 24 faces, so scientists can fix the spicules on them (spikes) of the different variants of the coronavirus.
“It’s very exciting to get to this point, I think for the entire (US) Army,” Modjarrad said. The human tests took longer than expected, because it was necessary to do them with people not vaccinated and never infected with COVID-19. Mass vaccination and the rapid spread of the delta and omicron variants made the search difficult.
“With omicron there is no way to escape. You will not be able to avoid it. So I think that soon everyone will be vaccinated or infected, “said the researcher.
SpFN would be a pan-coronavirus or universal vaccine, as the Spanish scientist Gorka Orive, professor of Pharmaceuticals at the University of the Basque Country, has called it.
Scientists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (USA) create the first universal vaccine against SARSCoV2 and all its variants (including omicron) and against previous coronaviruses (SARSCoV). Soon in clinical trials. https://t.co/5XNmJ5JvgP
— Gorka Orive (@gorka_orive) December 22, 2021
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The next step will be to see how the vaccine interacts with previously vaccinated or infected people. “We decided to look long term, rather than focus on the original emergency, understanding that viruses mutate, and variants and future viruses of new species will emerge. Our platform will equip people to be ready for that, ”Modjarrad said.
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