UK’s Imperial College Coronavirus Vaccine Candidate Enters Second Phase Of Clinical Trials

Clinical trials for the coronavirus vaccine candidate by the Imperial College, UK has expanded and it will now be tested on 300 people.

(Representative Image/ Getty)

New Delhi: A coronavirus vaccine candidate created by UK’s Imperial College is going to start testing on 300 people including people over 75. The vaccine is designed synthetically and doesn’t contain any particles of the virus, unlike other vaccine candidates. This new ‘self-amplifying RNA’ vaccine technology is been developed by Professor Robin Shattock and his team at Imperial’s Department of Infectious Disease. According to a statement by Imperial College’s article, the vaccine “uses the genetic instructions for the surface protein of the virus that can’t cause disease on its own…these RNA instructions are put inside a fat droplet and injected into the muscle in your arm. It then instructs your cells to produce copies of that protein for a period of time, allowing your immune system to learn to recognise the virus’s surface spikes. It is hoped this will provide protection again COVID-19 if you come into contact with the coronavirus for real.” The team found no side effects in the initial testing which began earlier this month. Now the team is moving towards testing the vaccine on a larger group. The team is moving slowly but steadily and hopes to have enough safety data to start inoculating on over a thousand people in October. “It’s well-tolerated. There aren’t any side effects,” said Dr. Robin Shattock, a professor at the college, in a report by The Associated Press The team is looking to start trials elsewhere as the cases in Britain have dropped and to see whether the vaccine is effective or nor is becoming increasingly difficult. This vaccine could change the future of immunization, according to the article “The new technology behind this work will allow scientists to quickly develop new vaccines. As soon as the genetic code of new pathogens has been sequenced, scientists will be able to ‘plug in’ instructions for the equivalent of the coronavirus’s surface proteins, to create a new vaccine… enable us to respond more quickly to changing or emerging diseases.