WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A 'fundamentally new' type of vaccine, developed using artificial intelligence for the first time in the world, has the potential to act against a variety of viruses and protect the world from future pandemic outbreaks, say researchers.
A Cambridge-led team has developed a way to engineer better vaccines that could provide broad protection from thousands of variants of viruses - such as coronaviruses or Ebola - in a single vaccine. This represents a fundamental new vaccine technology that could prevent future pandemics before they begin, the researchers claim.
The first human clinical trial of a universal Sarbeco coronavirus vaccine, developed by the University of Cambridge and spin-out DIOSynVax (DVX) Ltd, has shown that the vaccine is safe and has no significant side-effects.
The trial, involving 39 healthy volunteers, tested a vaccine designed to provide protection against multiple Sarbeco coronaviruses - the large group of viruses that occur in nature including SARS-CoV-2, which caused the Covid pandemic.
The vaccine triggered immune responses in the volunteers not only to SARS-CoV-2 and SARS, but to related bat viruses that could potentially jump from animals to humans and cause future pandemics.
This trial proves the safety of an entirely new way of designing vaccines. The technology uses an AI-designed 'super-antigen' to provide lasting protection against a broad range of viruses - for example the Ebola group, or Sarbeco coronavirus group - even as they mutate.
Vaccines developed in this way could protect against future emerging virus threats. The technology also reduces the need for frequent reformulation, which is a fundamental limitation of current vaccines.
This is the first time that a vaccine whose active component was designed entirely by computer simulations has been tested in humans.
Participants took part in the trials at National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Research Facilities in Southampton and Cambridge. The study was sponsored by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.
The results are published in the Journal of Infection.
'We've converted vaccine development from being reactive to being future proof. Our vaccines will continue to provide protection against viruses even as they mutate into new strains,' said Professor Jonathan Heeney from the Lab of Viral Zoonotics, University of Cambridge's Department of Veterinary Medicine, the scientific lead of the research.
He added: 'We've overcome the problem of traditional vaccines, which have limited protection. It means we can escape the constant cycle of chasing the virus variants circulating in humans and updating the vaccines to try to catch up, like a dog chasing its tail.'
The antigen is the active ingredient in a vaccine - it triggers the body's immune system to produce a protective immune response, training it to fight off future infection by a broad array of pathogens containing these specific DVX antigens.
Current vaccines, such as the seasonal flu vaccine and existing Covid-19 vaccines, use antigens from specific virus strains or variants that have already been detected in humans. But since viruses are constantly mutating, by the time these traditional vaccines are manufactured and distributed, they have limited protection and must be updated annually in an effort to keep up.
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