IISc Bengaluru comes up with warm vaccine against current strains of SARS-CoV-2

Subject: Science and Tech

Section: Health

In the news:

A heat-tolerant vaccine developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) researchers is said to be effective against all current strains of SARS-CoV-2 besides having the potential to be quickly adapted for future variants as well.

Details:

Researchers from IISc report the design of a synthetic antigen (RS2 antigen) that can be manufactured as a potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
the RS2 antigen can be stored at room temperature unlike other vaccines which require cold storage. This makes the new vaccine much more economical.
Since 2000, IISc team has been working on designing several viral vaccines, including those against AIDS and influenza. They have leveraged this expertise to design their current RS2-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate in collaboration with the startup Mynvax, which was, until recently, incubated at IISc.

Development of the new vaccine:

While current vaccines are proven to be effective against most SARS-CoV-2 strains, their efficacy has declined due to rapid mutation by the virus.
After analysing various proteins found in the virus, the researchers selected two parts of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein – the S2 subunit and the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) – for designing their vaccine candidate.
- The S2 subunit is highly conserved. It mutates much less than the S1 subunit, which is the target of most current vaccines.
- The RBD can provoke a strong immune response in the host.
Therefore, the team created a hybrid protein called RS2 by combining these two components.
The testing shows that the hybrid protein triggered a strong immune response and provided better protection when compared to vaccines containing the whole spike protein.

Advantage of the new vaccine:

The vaccine candidate can be tailored to incorporate the RBD region of any new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that might emerge.
Its high levels of expression and stability at room temperature can greatly reduce production and distribution costs, making it well suited for combating COVID-19.