In Japan, a vaccine against the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus is being developed, which could give the body lifelong immunity. Clinical trials of the drug are scheduled for 2023, The Japan Times reported on December 31.
Experts at the Tokyo Institute of Medical Sciences, headed by Professor Mitinori Kohara, took the smallpox vaccine as a basis. Created in the 18th century, it contained the cowpox virus, which was harmless to humans, and helped humanity to overcome the disease.
Now, Japanese scientists want to create a recombinant vaccinia virus containing the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. They admit that this version of the vaccine will achieve the development of lifelong immunity.
Thus, experiments on mice, during which the recombinant vaccinia virus encoding the avian influenza gene was used, showed a high production of antibodies. At the same time, antibodies persisted for more than 20 months.
“I have worked on various vaccine technologies such as adenovirus and RNA vaccines, but the drugs using the vaccinia virus vector are the most powerful of all,” Kohara said.
The scientist is confident that this type of vaccine has few side effects and does not need special methods of transportation and storage.
The Japanese drug manufacturer Nobelpharma, according to the newspaper, is going to conduct the first and second phases of clinical trials in the first half of 2023 with the participation of 150-200 people.
On December 31, Georgy Vikulov, director of the Research Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Viral Infections, spoke about the new Russian vaccine against coronavirus. According to him, the drug “Konvasel” will have a more effective effect on cellular immunity. At the same time, the head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA), Veronika Skvortsova, noted that not a single person who was vaccinated with Konvasel as part of clinical trials fell ill with COVID-19. The vaccine can be registered until the end of the 1st quarter of 2022.