Study: Moderna's vaccine candidate protects mice from coronavirus infection

US-based biotechnology company, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate has proven to protect mice from infection with the novel coronavirus, also known as SARS-CoV-2. As per the study published in the renowned journal, Nature, on August 5, the coronavirus vaccine candidate named mRNA-1273 induced both potent neutralizing antibody responses and prevents the coronavirus infection in the lungs as well as noses of the mice without any evidence of immunopathology. 

Moderna’s this vaccine candidate, that has previously shown positive results in monkeys, is now in Phase 3 of evaluation. The mRNA-1273 was given to mice as two intramuscular injections of a one microgramme dose, at a difference of three weeks. Furthermore, when these mice injected with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, were infected with the novel coronavirus at least five or 13 weeks after the second dose, the viral replications did not take place in animals’ nose and lungs. 

The mice, that were challenged just seven weeks after one dose of 1-mcg of the vaccine candidate also remained shielded from the deadly pathogen. The scientists that concluded these findings even included the ones from the National Insitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center (VRC). Certain members from NIAID even worked in collaboration with investigators from the University of Texas at Austin to identify the atomic structure of the spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2. 

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This same structure was used by the US biotech company to develop the vaccine candidate. When injected in mice, Moderna’s experimental vaccine also induced robust CD8 T-cell responses. Researchers also said that it did not trigger the type of cellular immune response that has been linked to vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD). Because there were no signs of infection among the vaccinated mice, the researchers concluded that mRNA-1273 did not cause enhanced disease. 

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Moderna’s vaccine candidate on nonhuman primates

Earlier, separate research published in New England Journals of Medicine said that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine induced a robust immune response and prevented the novel coronavirus from replicating in the noses and lungs of monkey. This also indicated that it could work on humans too. On the contrary, the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford did not give similar results. However, it still prevented the virus from getting in the monkey’s lungs and 'making them really sick'. 

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