Coronavirus is one of many different viruses in the coronavirus family, with many of these spread in groups of animals such as bats and have the ability to "jump" to humans.
Researchers at Pamela Bjorkman's laboratory in California are working to develop vaccines for a wide range of related corona viruses, with the aim of preventing future epidemics, according to a research paper in the "Science" magazine.
According to the research, a team from the California Institute of Technology designed nanoparticles made of 60 protein subunits to which up to 8 different types of Coronavirus have been attached, and when this vaccine is injected into mice, it stimulates the production of antibodies that interact with a variety of viruses. Coronaviruses - including similar viruses that have not been shown to nanoparticles.
This vaccine platform, called mosaic nanoparticles, was also developed by collaborators at the University of Oxford, and the nanoparticle is shaped like a cage of 60 identical proteins, each containing a small protein marker.
After vaccination, the antibodies produced by the mice were later able to interact with many different strains of the Coronavirus, and most importantly, the antibodies were reactive to the related Coronavirus strains that were not present on the nanoparticles.
This indicates that by presenting the immune system with different variants of the Corona virus, the immune system learns to recognize the common features of corona viruses, and thus it can interact with the emerging corona virus.
Although the team is still studying the mechanism behind this phenomenon, the results are promising, and the next step is to examine whether immunization prevents viral infection or symptoms of infection in animals that make these antibodies.
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