RE: Dr Kim ... "God" ..... ?3 Mar 2020 15:12
Because of SARS and MERS, there's a platform and there's data to work from,” said Gregory Poland, professor and director of Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group. “We understand the virus and we have the sequence of the virus. The crystal structure of the receptor has been resolved and identified as the ACE2 receptor.”
He said developing neutralizing antibodies is important, as previous SARS candidate vaccines were shown to be useful and protective against viral challenge. It is one of the approaches adopted by vaccine developers.
But to rapidly advance vaccine candidates into human trials, biotech scientists need to get preclinical studies done right, said Poland. Animal models still play a role in vaccine development.
“In our rush to develop a vaccine [for COVID-19], we have to remember that in preclinical studies, although mice and ferrets may be protected against viral challenges with these vaccines, there were also some early red flags,” Poland said. “There were occasions of a type II hypersensitivity pneumonitis that developed in some animal models.”
While speed is important, other factors such as quality and manufacturability cannot be overlooked, panelists reminded the research community on the forum.
“We need speed, but we still need quality. We don't want to introduce a second harm to people,” said Xuefeng Yu, CEO of Chinese vaccine developer Cansino Biologics Inc.
Xue said he believes animal models should be available before moving any vaccine candidates into human trials. The cautious scientist said it is critically important to check every step in order to make a vaccine that will eventually work without any concerns such as disease enhancement.
“Even though we have learned from MERS and SARS, [COVID-19] is still a new virus that behaves very differently, so we should really get some basic understanding,” Xue said.
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