Progress Reported on Single Dose J&J Vaccine; COVID-19 re-infections considered rare

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine advances thanks to clinical trials

An experimental COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson produced protective antibodies against the novel coronavirus in 90% of 805 volunteers at day 29, and this increased to 100% by day 57, according to data from a mid-year study. current course. Side effects such as fever, muscle aches and pain at the injection site resolved quickly, researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine reported on Wednesday. To be approved by regulators, the J&J vaccine must show efficacy, as evidenced by a lower risk of serious infections and illnesses in study participants who receive it compared to those who do not. Efficacy data from a large, late-stage vaccine trial is expected by February. Experts expect the vaccine to show 80% or greater efficacy, which would surpass the 50% threshold for regulatory approval, but exceed the roughly 95% achieved in Moderna’s already licensed vaccine trials. Inc and Pfizer Inc with BioNTech SE. J&J vaccine requires only one dose and does not meet the cold storage requirements of other vaccines. The likelihood of getting good results, “hopefully, is very high,” the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company’s scientific director Paul Stoffels said this week. (bit.ly/2LpBhHm)

COVID-19 confers some immunity and re-infections considered rare

COVID-19 survivors are very likely to have some immune protection against the virus for at least five months, and re-infections in recovered patients are rare, with just 44 cases found among 6,614 people previously infected, according to researchers leading a large health care study underway. workers in Britain. But when people contract COVID-19 a second time, they often have no symptoms and therefore may still be able to carry the coronavirus up their nose and throat and pass it unintentionally, the researchers wrote in a published report. Wednesday by Public Health England (PHE) ahead of the peer review. Experts have said that people who contracted COVID-19 in the first wave of the pandemic may again be vulnerable to infection. “We now know that most of those who have had the virus and have developed antibodies are protected against reinfection, but it is not total and we do not yet know how long the protection lasts,” said Susan Hopkins. , Study Director, Senior Medical Advisor at PHE in London. “If you think you’ve had the disease in the past and are protected, you can be reassured that you’re very unlikely to develop serious infections. But there is always a risk that you could get an infection and pass it on to others. (bit.ly/3ihkuBZ; reut.rs/3ieWorA)

The coronavirus targets the energy engines of cells

Researchers have discovered an important line of attack used by the new coronavirus: it targets the mitochondria of an infected cell. These tiny organelles not only generate the energy that powers a cell’s biochemical reactions, but they also play an important role in immune function. “We knew that when the virus attacks cells, bad things happen – but we didn’t know why,” said Dr. Pinchas Cohen of the University of Southern California, whose team released their results this month. here in the journal Scientific Reports. “Now we can say that when the virus attacks cells, it damages the mitochondria.” In test-tube experiments, the researchers found that the virus caused “dramatic changes and alteration” in genes that regulate mitochondrial function, Cohen told Reuters. The implication, Cohen said, is that energy production in cells and so-called innate immunity – the body’s first line of defense against germs – are then impaired. Another implication is that having healthy mitochondria would help people fight off the virus if they did become infected. “We know that a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle promote mitochondrial health,” said Cohen, as mitochondrial function deteriorates with age and with many chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. In the future, Cohen added, researchers could develop COVID-19 interventions to help improve mitochondrial health. (go.nature.com/3bFlCyc)

‘Nanobody’ combos block coronavirus, even when mutating

Combining small antibodies called nanobodies into single molecules to fight the novel coronavirus may be more effective than targeting it with conventional antibodies or single nanobodies, according to a new study. These “multivalent” nanobodies – containing several building blocks of nanobodies – “are significantly better at neutralizing viruses” and preventing them from breaking down into cells, study leaders Florian Schmidt and Paul-Albert König told Reuters. the University of Bonn. The fused nanobodies “help each other so that the result is better than the simple sum of the two responses”. Nanobodies constructs can target multiple sites on the coronavirus, making it more difficult for the pathogen to develop mutations that render treatment ineffective, according to a report published Tuesday in the journal Science. While the researchers saw many mutations that allowed the coronavirus to “escape” from the effect of a single nanobody, “we did not find any escape mutants capable of replicating in the presence of these nanobodies. that target two different surfaces at the same time. ”Schmidt and König said. A University of Bonn spin-off company called DiosCURE plans to start testing the combined nanobody molecules in humans later this year. bit.ly/3nOvXKH)

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