There are already several vaccines that are in different phases of trials around the world as scientists and medical experts are racing against time to find the one that could hinder COVID-19 from infecting humans. But researchers from China claim that their candidate vaccine has already worked on monkeys.
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Potential COVID-19 Vaccine Works on Monkeys
In a recent report by FOX News, this was the first time this happened with any potential coronavirus vaccine.
The researchers published their study on the biorxiv repository, meaning it hasn't been peer-reviewed yet.
According to the researchers from a biotech company in Beijing known as Sinovac Biotech, the team gave two different doses of their candidate COVID-19 vaccine to eight rhesus macaque monkeys.
Of the two options, 3μg and 6μg, the one with the higher dosage performed best.
After seven days of being given the virus, the scientists were unable to find any trace of it on the monkey's pharynx, lungs, or any organ of their body while the monkeys that received a lower dosage had a "viral blip" but otherwise contained the infection.
On the other hand, the control group of monkeys developed severe pneumonia and had high levels of viral RNA on different parts of their body.
"A purified inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus vaccine candidate (PiCoVacc) confers complete protection in non-human primates against SARS-CoV-2 strains circulating worldwide by eliciting potent humoral responses devoid of immunopathology," the study's summary reads.
Additionally, the researchers believe that their coronavirus vaccine has the potential to help prevent other SARS-CoV-2 strains that are currently circulating.
PiCoVacc induced SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in the primates, which potently neutralized 10 SARS-CoV-2 strains.
Human Trial Has Begun
The researchers also included that based on several tests they have done to monitor the monkeys' health, the coronavirus vaccine candidate is safe for use and that it could help with the rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine for human use.
Based on Science Mag, the Beijing-made candidate vaccine includes an "old-fashioned formulation" that consists of a chemically inactive version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus or the novel coronavirus as it is widely known.
They also reported that human clinical trials have already started on April 16.
Meng Weining, Sinovac Biotech's senior director for overseas regulatory affairs, said that the result of the study gives them a lot of confidence that the potential COVID-19 vaccine will work in humans.
Is It What We're Waiting For?
Professor Florian Krammer from the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai posted a tweet, saying he is "a fan" of the vaccine.
"This is old school, but it might work. What I like most is that many vaccine producers, also in lower-middle-income countries, could make such a vaccine," he added.
Nevertheless, Douglas Reed from the University of Pittsburgh, who is also working and developing a coronavirus vaccine in monkey studies, said that the number of animals the researcher used in the study was too small to draw a significant result.
Reed also has concerns with how the Chinese researchers grew the stock of the SARS-CoV-2 virus they used for the study, among others.
As of now, we have to wait for the results of Sinovac's clinical trials on humans to see whether it's the answer that we are hoping for against COVID-19.
