IISC designed Heat-Tolerant COVID-19 Vaccine- Know About This Vaccine Here
A study published in Journal of Biological Chemistry and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences respectively, a group of researchers led by professor Raghavan Varadarajan at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) are working for designing a Covid-19 vaccine named “heat-tolerant” COVID-19 vaccine. They are developing this vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 and HIV.
In this research, they developed the design of “heat-tolerant” COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and a rapid method to identify specific regions on the HIV envelope protein that are targeted by antibodies, which can help design effective vaccines.
Researchers said, The COVID-19 vaccine candidate contains a part of the spike protein of the novel coronavirus called the receptor binding domain (RBD) and this region helps the virus stick to the host’s cell. The vaccine has been tested in guinea pig models and the vaccine candidate triggered a strong immune response.
Normally vaccines like mRNA and others need to be stored between 2 and 8 degree Celsius to avoid losing their potency. But surprisingly “heat-tolerant” COVID-19 vaccine does not need to be stored this low temperature, it can remain stabled for a month at 37°C, and freeze-dried versions could tolerate temperatures as high as 100°C. Such “warm” vaccines can be stored and transported without expensive cooling equipment to remote areas for mass vaccination.
This vaccine only uses a specific part of the RBD, a string of 200 amino acids, instead of the entire spike protein. The research team inserted genes coding for this part via a carrier DNA molecule called a plasmid, into mammalian cells, which then churned out copies of the RBD section. They found that the RBD formulation was just as good as the full spike protein in triggering an immune response in guinea pigs, but much more stable at high temperatures for extended periods ‒ the full spike protein quickly lost its activity at temperatures above 50°C.
The second study focused on HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a disease for which there is no vaccine despite decades of research. The research team, which included researchers from multiple institutes, sought to pinpoint which parts of the HIV’s envelope protein are targeted by neutralising antibodies ‒ the ones that actually block virus entry into cells, not just flag it for other immune cells to find. According to the research vaccines based on these regions might induce a better immune response.
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First, the research team mutated the virus so that an amino acid called cysteine would pop up in several places on the envelope protein. Then they added a chemical label that would stick to these cysteine molecules, and finally, treated the virus with neutralising antibodies. If the antibodies could not bind to crucial sites on the virus because they were blocked by the cysteine label, the virus could survive and cause infection. Those sites were then identified by sequencing the genes of the surviving mutant viruses.
Professor Varadarajan said, “This is a rapid way of figuring out where antibodies are binding and is useful for vaccine design. It could also help in simultaneously testing how different people’s sera samples ‒ the portions of their blood containing antibodies ‒ react to the same vaccine candidate or virus, in principle, researchers could adapt this methodology to any virus, including SARS-CoV-2.”
(IISC press release)
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