Plant-based COVID vaccine passes first phase of trials

Canadian molecular biologists have created a vaccine for coronavirus, consisting of virus-like particles of plant origin, and tested it on 200 volunteers who participated in the first phase of clinical trials, Report informs with reference to the Nature Medicine journal.

The scientists’ observations showed that the volunteers equally well tolerated the vaccine. After the injection of the second dose, the amount of antibodies in the blood of most of them was about ten times higher than in the plasma of people who had recovered from COVID-19.

Such an approach, as Professor Ward and colleagues explain, is not something radically new - it is widely used in the creation of vaccines for influenza, hepatitis B, and papillomavirus. This technology significantly reduces the cost of vaccinations, allows them to be stored at relatively high temperatures, about 2-8 degrees Celsius, and at the same time, the production of plant-based vaccines is easy to scale.

Scientists tested the jab on a group of 200 volunteers aged 18 to 49 years, living in Montreal and Quebec. Having prepared several different variants of vaccinations, the biologists introduced virus-like particles to the participants in the experiment and monitored how the immune system and the body as a whole reacted to their appearance.

Subsequent observations showed that the vaccine did not cause serious side effects, except for the fatigue that occurred in one of the participants in the trials immediately after the injection. In general, it was found to be safe for patients.

At the same time, scientists found that after a single injection of the vaccine, a large number of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 appeared in about 60% of the trial participants, while the second shot of the vaccine led to their formation in 91% of the volunteers. On average, the concentration of these molecules in the volunteers’ body was quite higher than in patients who had recently undergone coronavirus infection.