July 27, 2022

expert reaction to a mouse study of a pan-coronavirus vaccine

A mouse study published in Science Translational Medicine suggests that vaccines targeted towards the S2 protein of SARS-CoV-2 are able to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Prof Penny Ward, Independent Pharmaceutical Physician, and Visiting Professor in Pharmaceutical Medicine at King’s College London, said:

“A paper today describes efforts in the UK towards finding a universal coronavirus vaccine, use of which could solve the problem of endless new waves of disease caused by variants with reduced vaccine sensitivity. The vaccine targets a less mutable surface protein – S2 – common to many different coronaviruses thereby potentially offering not only protection against covid-19 but also protection against other coronavirus colds. The prototype used in this study is a DNA vaccine – another novel technology, exemplars of which have yet to be approved for use in humans. While novel vaccine technologies are welcome as we have learned during the covid pandemic, suspicion of novel technologies has been a barrier to vaccination in some countries. In addition, the need for additional manufacturing capability slows the time to market and limits availability for clinical use. It would therefore be interesting to extend this program to investigate whether a S2 protein subunit or mRNA vaccine could offer similar levels of benefit and enable existing vaccine manufacturing facilities to adopt this approach, should it be effective, more quickly than might otherwise be achieved.”

‘SARS-CoV-2 S2–targeted vaccination elicits broadly neutralizing antibodies’ by Kevin W. Ng et al. was published in Science Translational Medicine at 19:00 UK time on Thursday 27 July.

Declared interests

Prof Penny Ward: “I am semi-retired, but I am owner/Director of PWG Consulting (Biopharma) Ltd a consulting firm advising companies on drug and device development. Between December 2016 and July 2019 I served as Chief Medical Officer of Virion Biotherapeutics Ltd, a company developing antiviral treatments for respiratory viral diseases. Previous employee of Roche, makers of tocilizumab (anti IL6 antibody) and CMO of Novimmune, makers of empalumab (anti IFN gamma antibody).”