Is there a vegan vaccine, how does the serum work against the plant component of coronavirus and how effective is it?

Science keeps innovating with new alternatives for the global fight against coronavirus. Given the diversity of the world’s population, laboratories mix different drugs that try to adapt to individual preferences. This is how the plant vaccine against covid has already reached phase III. it’s about the CovLP, developed by the Canadian company Medicago (in association with the British GlaxoSmithKline) and elaborated plant based. It has aroused the interest of many Argentinian volunteers who support veganism and vegetarianism, as in the case of the actress Celestial Cid, who volunteered for tests at the military hospital.

While the adjuvant of this drug is not vegan, the vaccine is derived from a plant. According to Medicago, this vaccine development “uses living plants as bioreactors to produce a non-infectious particle What it mimics the target virus, without using live viruses ”.

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To do this, they pointed out, they use Nicotiana Benthamiana, who is a close relative of the tobacco: “It is the most widely used experimental host in plant virology, mainly due to the large number of viruses that can successfully infect it. Your weakened immune system, the result of natural changes over millennia, means that the genetic material it can be successfully hosted by the plant and not rejected ”, specified the developers, who added that this vaccine is administered in two doses, with a 21 day interval between the first and the second component.

GlaxoSmithKline and Medicago further stated that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate increased levels of protective antibodies. 10 times higher than in patients recovered from the disease, based on interim results of the trials. The generated antidote immune responses Similar in all age groups, with no serious safety event in the mid-stage trial, the lab said in a statement.

For its part, Gonzalo Perez Marc, a doctor who is leading the project in Argentina, told News review that this plant vaccine could be “up to 80 times more potent than the others”. And he clarified that although the adjuvant who uses this development “It’s not vegan”, this SARS-CoV-2 drug can be very beneficial in terms of health: “Being herbal, when the time is approved, production could be increased quickly. For example, the Sputnik V he’s spectacular, but the adenovirus he uses is difficult to grow. In this case, this difficulty does not exist ”, he declared.

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In phase III

The phase III of this study is tested in 30,000 participants, between 18 and 88 years old, distributed in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Brazil and Argentina, where some 5,000 volunteers participated. According to data released by the Canadian company, young adults produced cellular immune response and of neutralizing antibodies stronger after a dose than adults over 65, but reactions were similar between age groups after dieting.

In this regard, Medicago explained, “All study visits, tests and care, as well as the vaccine, were provided at no cost to the patient. voluntary. In addition, compensation was granted for time and travel. No medical insurance was required to participate. “

Thomas breuer, medical director of GSK vaccinesnoted, “This advance in advanced stage clinical trials further strengthens our confidence in the potential of the vaccine candidate with adjuvants make the difference in the continued fight against COVID-19. We look forward to sharing the results later this year. “

For its part, Nathalie Landry, vice-president Medicago’s director of scientific and medical affairs noted that this vaccine gave strong immune responses in all those who received it, regardless of their age. “We hope to add another tool in the global fight against COVID-19, especially as cross-protection is emerging as an important consideration in efforts to vaccination all over the world, ”he said.

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Plant vaccine technology

The plant vaccine uses technology known as Virus-like particles (VLP), which in Spanish means “virus-like particles”. That is, particles that resemble the virus, but are not infectious, are used. Among the first vaccines to use this platform are those from Human papillomavirus (HPV) and some against Influenza.

Perez Marc detailed how this vaccine works: “The Protein DNA Peak, which is the one that generates the most important immune response when the virus enters the body. You put that DNA in a plant his name is Nicotiana benthamiana, which is specifically selected because it has the ability to take this loose DNA and produce a protein with this information. But it does not only generate the proteinBut it does something more interesting: it generates them in small groups of three, in trimer, and inserts them into a fatty membrane. If you look at this particle under an electron microscope, you can see that it is very similar to virus. What is the advantage of this? That when this particle is introduced into the vaccine and an adjuvant is added, in this case the AS03 that power, you get a immune response basic which is spectacular because it is exactly the same as that which generates the coronavirus, but which does not infect because has no virus”.