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By E.J. Mundell<\/b>
HealthDay Reporter<\/i><\/p>\n
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 12, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
A vaccine<\/a> based on cutting-edge RNA gene technology showed promising potency against the new coronavirus in an early trial, scientists report.<\/p>\n The vaccine<\/a> candidate — for now just called BNT162b1 — “elicited a robust immune response in participants, which increased with dose level and with a second dose,” according to a news release from the journal Nature<\/i>, which published the trial data on Aug. 12.<\/p>\n The early phase 1\/2 trial was led by Dr. Judith Absalon, of drug giant Pfizer Inc. According to her team, BNT162b1 is based on a bit of genetic code known as messenger RNA, which helps kick-start the body’s immune response when it encounters the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n Vaccine development strategies focused on RNA are “generally considered safe and have facilitated the rapid development of vaccines<\/a> against SARS<\/a>-CoV-2,” the journal noted.<\/p>\n The new trial involved 45 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55. Half were randomly selected to get the vaccine at a low, medium or high dose, while the other half got a “dummy” placebo shot.<\/p>\n The result: “The vaccine elicited a robust immune response in participants,” and the higher the dose, the stronger the response, the authors reported. Getting a second “booster” shot also upped the immune system response.<\/p>\n In fact, in participants who got the vaccine, “levels of [coronavirus-] neutralizing antibodies were 1.9 to 4.6 times higher than those in patients recovering from SARS<\/a>-CoV-2,” according to the release. Still, Absalon’s group stressed that phase 3 trials — where the vaccine is tested in a much larger population — are needed to confirm the safety, strength and duration of any protective effect.<\/p>\n According to the journal, the shot was “generally well-tolerated,” although some recipients did have some transitory side effects such as soreness at the injection site, fatigue<\/a>, headache<\/a>, fever<\/a> and sleep<\/a> woes. Those tended to clear up within a week of vaccination, the researchers said.<\/p>\n Dr. Amesh Adalja is an expert in infectious diseases and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. Reading over the new report, he said, “The study provides more evidence of mRNA candidate COVID vaccines<\/a> do induce neutralizing antibodies after two doses.”<\/p>\n Adalja noted that there are “multiple” COVID-19<\/a> vaccine candidates that employ RNA technology, and this suggests they can spark a potent immune response in people.<\/p>\n “What remains to be seen is what these antibodies translate to when a vaccinated individual is faced with the wild virus,” Adalja said. “Until we see phase 3 clinical data, it is still an extrapolation to understand how effective these vaccines<\/a> will be in the real world.”<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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