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Shelved vaccines for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Houston Texas are now being trailed for a potential treatment to COVID-19 |
Thousands of doses of a potential vaccine for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Aka SARS are sitting in a freezer in Houston, Texas, having been shelved since 2016 as most in the world lost interest in the disease.
Now, four years later, he has been given new life as scientists hope to work for COVID-19 as well. Depending on the amount given to patients, anywhere from 23,000 to 230,000 doses of the vaccine are currently in a storage facility in Houston called Cryogen.
"We can neither get any money. Neither from the government nor from private industry," said Maria Elena Botazazzi, a pediatrician from the Boiler College of Medicine and one of the vaccine developers.
The three organizations have agreed to shepherd the vaccine through clinical trials and ensure that it is safe and inexpensive. Protein-based vaccines are made using yeast, similar to the method employed in the manufacture of hepatitis B vaccines used worldwide.
"There is a lot of knowledge and a lot of security with this method," said Botsazi, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. He said the researchers hope to have approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials by September. COVID-19 now has about 100 vaccines under development worldwide.
The three partners working to bring Botazuzzi's vaccine to clinical trials are the Boiler College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, and PATH, a 43-year-old global nonprofit dedicated to improving public health.
Deborah Higgins, senior director of penetration for TBH development, said that because the SARS virus and the new coronavirus "have a lot of similarities, we felt there was appropriate potential for the vaccine to address the current epidemic ..."
'Instead of starting from ground zero in developing a vaccine, this candidate is virtually ready to go to the clinic. It is far ahead of the game.'
PATH, which operates in more than 70 countries, has participated in developing vaccines against Japanese encephalitis, meningitis A, and malaria.
The SARS vaccine, known as RBD219N1, was developed by Botazzi and colleague Peter Hotz, who is the co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.
It works by targeting key mechanisms used by both SARS and new coronaviruses to infect cells. Both viruses use their spike proteins to dock outside human cells, specifically on one part of the cell, a receptor called ACE-2. Once the protein is docked, the virus is able to enter the cells.
This vaccine makes an obstruction in this relationship by hindering the bit of the spike protein between the infection and the human cell that is on the ACE-2 receptor.
Botaji said the vaccine has been tested on animals. It has also been successfully tested on a pseudovirus, a lab-produced virus similar to SARS-CoV-2 but unable to cause disease.
It took nearly five years and $ 6 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health to develop and test the vaccine, before hitting a funding wall in 2016. The association involved organizations like Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital Center, New York Blood Center, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston.
Once developed, the vaccine was manufactured by the military. Then, in 2016, when researchers were ready to move forward in clinical trials, interest in the SARS vaccine disappeared. Pharmaceutical companies were not interested. Neither were the military or other US government agencies.
Other researchers eager to study SARS also encountered similar problems. Although the disease went away in 2004, many scientists worried that another coronavirus would surface.
Nevan J., a molecular biologist at the University of California at San Francisco. Krogan said that he had applied for a grant to do SARS research, but was unable to obtain the funds.
'There should have been a ton of research at SARS, but the money dried up,' said Croghan. 'It was the short-sightedness not only of government agencies but also of scientists.'
He stressed that scientists perform peer-review work that is often used to decide which grants receive money and which do not.
Now, after four years at Limbo, the Baylor team managed to find support for their dependent vaccine.
Hotez, co-developer of the vaccine with Botazi, said, "It is exciting to join this effort with Paytm now to address this significant global health threat." Botazzi stressed that researchers expect his vaccine to cost less than $ 1 or $ 2.
'It is becoming clear that this virus poses a very high risk to low and middle income countries in South and Central America, Africa and Asia,' she said. 'Our goal is to ensure that our development efforts lead to COVID-19 vaccines with global reach, so the population can benefit in many low-resource countries where it is most needed.'
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