Melbourne-made low dose, low side effect Covid vax set to fight mutant strains, change landscape
Covid deaths in Victoria have risen again, with 86 people passing away with the virus in the last four weeks. It comes as a new Monash vaccine shows promise in fighting off mutant strains.
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Covid deaths in Victoria have risen again, with 86 people passing away with the virus in the last four weeks.
The seven-day average of Victorians in intensive care with Covid has also increased, from six to eight.
“Deaths in the most recent 28-day period have continued to increase, with a current 28-day total of 86,” the Victorian Health Department reported on Friday.
“Increases and decreases in the reporting of deaths attributable to COVID-19 tend to lag waves of infections and hospitalisations by several weeks.”
However, in an encouraging sign, the number of Victorians in hospital with Covid has dropped this week to a daily average of 179, down from 183 last week.
Low side effect Covid vax a game-changer
A Covid vaccine being developed by Monash University could change the landscape, with hope it can fight off mutant “escape” strains, even when delivered at low doses — which means fewer side effects.
Promising results from early trials of Australia’s first homegrown mRNA Covid vaccine candidate suggest it can provoke an immune response up to 22 times higher than other vaccines.
And it can do it at lower doses, while overcoming the problem of “immune imprinting” — a phenomenon that reduces the effectiveness of Covid vaccines, as the virus continues to mutate.
Immune imprinting occurs when initial exposure to one Covid strain — either by infection or vaccination — hinders immunity against new variants of the virus.
Program leader Professor Colin Pouton from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences said prior exposure to a virus induced “B-cell memory”, which in turn enabled the immune system to respond to the same virus in the future.
“However, a problem arises when mutation of the virus leads to an escape variant, and the immune system is not primed to produce antibodies against the mutated variant. There is evidence that suggests a history of infection with Covid can have a negative effect on subsequent protective immunity, particularly to Omicron mutations,” he said.
“When our RBD mRNA vaccine was administered as a booster (in mice) to test its efficacy against Omicron BA. 1 and BA. 5, the studies revealed an immune response up to 22-fold higher than an Omicron variant of the whole spike vaccine, suggesting the RBD mRNA vaccines have the potential to protect against future escape variants.
“Additionally, boosting with the Omicron BA. 1 or BA. 5 variations of the RBD mRNA vaccine provided good protection against more recent variants. As each RBD mRNA vaccine tested in the studies is about a quarter of the size of their whole-spike equivalents, we expect that the RBD vaccines will be effective atlower doses. This means that vaccines can be used at lower and better tolerated doses leading to fewer side effects than those currently available.”
“Evasive variants” had consistently developed and circulated since Omicron arrived and posed a major problem the world over, Prof Pouton said.
“We really need the opportunity to test an Omicron RBD mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in clinical trials to demonstrate more clearly its potential to address the issue of immune imprinting, which will need to be a critical feature for a next-generation vaccine” he said.
How new vax was funded
The MIPS COVID-19 mRNA vaccine first received funding in 2020 through the collaboration with the Doherty Institute. The two leading Melbourne institutes received a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant to commence the clinical trial process for their two vaccine candidates.
Not long after, in 2021, the Victorian Government invested $5 million to manufacture Monash’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for the Phase 1 clinical trial with the Doherty Institute.
This funding was provided by the Victorian Government through mRNA Victoria, a dedicated government agency established to lead mRNA research, development, and advanced manufacturing capability to establish a world-class Australian mRNA and RNA industry, based in Victoria.
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Originally published as Melbourne-made low dose, low side effect Covid vax set to fight mutant strains, change landscape
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