New vaccine could protect against COVID-19 variants before they emerge

COVID-19 variants and other coronaviruses before they even emerge.According to a news release from Caltech, the vaccine works by using spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — and seven other related animal viruses with the potential to cause a pandemic in humans.

The spike proteins are attached to a "nanoparticle structure" developed by a team at the University of Oxford to produce a broad range of antibodies."SARS-CoV-2 has proven itself capable of making new variants that could prolong the global COVID-19 pandemic," said Caltech bioengineering professor Pamela Bjorkman, who’s leading the study. "In addition, the fact that [these viruses] have spilled over into humans from animal hosts in the last 20 years illustrates the need for making broadly protective vaccines."RELATED: Pharmacists can prescribe COVID treatment drug Paxlovid, FDA saysThe team of researchers is currently testing the new vaccine on mice and monkeys with plans for a Phase 1 human clinical trial.

Trial participants will include mostly people who have been vaccinated against and/or previously infected with COVID-19.Researchers did not include SARS-Cov — the virus that caused the SARS pandemic in the early 2000s — in the eight viruses attached to the nanoparticle, but animals that got the vaccine were still protected against SARS-Cov, researchers said.

Unvaccinated mice that were infected with a SARS-like virus died.Pamela Bjorkman (Photo courtesy Caltech) "We can't predict which virus or viruses among the vast numbers in animals will evolve in the future to infect humans to cause another epidemic or pandemic," Bjorkman said. "What we're trying to do is make an all-in-one vaccine protective against SARS-like betacoronaviruses.