Coronavirus: ex-Digger raises his hand for vaccine jab

Chris Turner retired hurt from the military, but now he’s found a new public service.

Former soldier Chris Turner, in Adelaide, is happy to take part in trials of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Chris Turner has always felt a sense of duty. The Afghanistan veteran retired hurt from the military but now he’s found a new public service — volunteering to be injected with a coronavirus ­vaccine.

The 32-year-old has volunteered for a human trial in Adelaide to test a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that’s been developed by scientists from the Australian company Vaxine.

“This is something that’s a minimal effort to me and it could mean the world to someone else,” Mr Turner said.

“I would feel like I’ve kind of been part of the team. I’m not a ­virologist by any means but would feel that I did what I could.”

Mr Turner, the president of the Australian Student Veterans Community at Flinders Univer­sity, received a medical discharge from the army following a back injury. He’s now devoted to the cause of veterans’ higher education. Several Flinders University students from the veterans’ organisation are planning to also volunteer for the Adelaide COVID-19 vaccine trial.

Vaxine’s founder, Flinders University professor of medicine ­Nikolai Petrovsky, said the candidate being trialled, dubbed COVAX-19, was modelled on a vaccine the company developed for SARS, which proved effective in animal trials. “We believe we’ve got a tremendously effective vaccine,” Professor Petrovsky said.

Vaxine is recruiting 75 volunteers who would be injected with COVAX-19 in a phase 1 human trial. Vaxine has previously developed vaccines for swine flu, as well as two types of bird flu. It uses recombinant DNA technology to deliver the vaccine into human cells. Recombinant protein vaccines work by inducing an immune response in the body to invasion by the spike proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

These spikes surround the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, forming part of the crown, or “corona”. In coronavirus infection, the SARS-CoV-2 spikes, called S1 proteins, bind to a receptor molecule on the body’s cells, called ACE2. The virus is then able to invade the cell and replicate. SARS-CoV-2 has a high binding capacity for ACE2, making it highly infectious.

To make a recombinant protein-based vaccine, researchers insert the genetic sequence for the coronavirus’s distinctive spike protein into a cell. The cell then grows this protein. Researchers then purify the protein and turn it into a vaccine.

Once it’s injected, the vaccine stimulates the immune system to make antibodies against the spike protein, which then are able to block the virus from binding to the ACE2 receptor.

The adjuvant added to the vaccine increases antibody production. Professor Petrovsky believes he has a supercharged adjuvant. The patented adjuvant, Advax, is a plant sugar commonly added to probiotic foods such as a yoghurt.

“What we found is that if we took that sugar and then we made it into small little nanoparticles, it developed these unique immune turbocharging effects,” Professor Petrovsky said. “But the surprising thing was that it did that in a way that didn’t cause inflammation or reactions.” Volunteers are not being injected with a live vaccine, so the only effects will be an immune response that participants are unlikely to be able to detect.

“I’m not going to lose any sleep over it,” Mr Turner said of the upcoming injection. He won’t be paid for his trouble, but he hopes his involvement will advance the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

“If I can help move this study along and get a definitive solution earlier, I will feel like I’ve done something to help in some way,” he said.