A new COVID-19 vaccine that fires proteins in the body that destroy the virus within two weeks is just a few months from human trials.
The 'highly scalable' vaccine is the first peer-reviewed antidote to the coronavirus that currently has much of the world in lockdown or isolation. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh say the new treatment would be delivered through a 'painless jab' similar to the annual flu vaccine. The team from the US have tested the vaccine on mice and estimate that it should be able to neutralise the deadly virus for at least a year.
It will be between 12 and 18 months before the test is publicly available but when it is approved tens of thousands of doses could be produced every day. The vaccine is delivered into the skin through a fingertip-sized patch of microscopic needles made from sugar - which scientists describe as 'painless' and feeling like velcro. An industrial-style production process has been used to produce the Pittsburgh Coronavirus Vaccine - PittCoVacc - making it 'highly scalable'. This is the first COVID-19 candidate vaccine that's been scrutinised by independent scientists. The findings are published in The Lancet's EBioMedicine journal.

HOW WOULD THE VACCINE BE DELIVERED?

The vaccine would be delivered to the skin via a tiny fingertip-sized patch. This is enough to let the body produce quantities of antibodies high enough to neutralise the virus for a year. The novel delivery system is called a 'microneedle array'. It has 400 tiny needles that deliver the spike protein pieces into the skin and increase the potency. It goes into the skin as that is where the immune reaction is strongest. The patch goes on like a plaster and then the needles dissolve into skin. The needles are made of sugar and protein pieces containing the antibody triggering vaccine. It was a method used to deliver the smallpox vaccine - but more high tech.

Doctors say it is 'pretty painless - it feels like Velcro'.

The researchers are now applying for approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and aim to start the first human trial and hope to be able to begin those trials within months. Senior study author Professor Louis Falo, from the University of Pittsburgh, said getting to human tests stage would usually require at least a year or more. 'This particular situation is different from anything we've ever seen, so we don't know how long the clinical development process will take.'Recently announced revisions to the normal processes suggest we may be able to advance this faster.'The Pittsburgh team were able to act quickly because they had already laid the groundwork during earlier coronavirus epidemics. Senior study author Professor Andrea Gambotto, also at Pittsburgh, said they knew exactly where to go in terms of ways to fight the virus. 'We had previous experience on SARS-CoV in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2014,' the study author said. 'These two viruses, which are closely related to SARS-CoV-2, teach us that a particular protein, called a spike protein, is important for inducing immunity against the virus.' She added: 'That's why it's important to fund vaccine research. You never know where the next pandemic will come from.' The PittCoVacc vaccine is more conventional compared to the experimental mRNA vaccine that has just begun clinical trials.
It works like a flu jab, penetrating the skin with lab-made pieces of viral protein to build immunity, the researchers explained.The team also used a new approach to deliver the drug, called a microneedle array, to increase potency. The patch goes on like a plaster and then the needles - which are made entirely of sugar and the protein pieces - simply dissolve into the skin. Professor Falo added: 'We developed this to build on the original scratch method used to deliver the smallpox vaccine to the skin.;
Falso said it is a high-tech version that is more efficient and reproducible patient to patient. Adding: 'It's actually pretty painless - it feels kind of like Velcro.'
A 'cell factory' produces multiple layers of cultured cells engineered to grow the spike protein, that can be stacked further to multiply the yield. This makes the vaccine 'highly scalable', according to the Pittsburgh team.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8180527/Coronavirus-VACCINE-approved-human-trials-months.html?ito=social-facebook

https://nypost.com/2020/04/02/scientists-believe-they-found-potential-coronavirus-vaccine/?sr_share=facebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&fbclid=IwAR3g4orRZoCX6ORkcECYCoM7TdiCb3kPvwp2hWTVTdWyM4uDO1vF650hqQU

The time of it's Availability is too far.Hope a Facilitated one comes up.

Video about the Vaccine by Professors and Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNX7WAtsbog


Cc dominique, Sissy3 Lalasticlala Seun Ishilove


https://nypost.com/2020/04/02/scientists-believe-they-found-potential-coronavirus-vaccine/?sr_share=facebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&fbclid=IwAR3g4orRZoCX6ORkcECYCoM7TdiCb3kPvwp2hWTVTdWyM4uDO1vF650hqQU

knowhowk:
The time of it's Availability is too far.Hope a Facilitated one comes up.

They will hasten it up. They are already in talks with FDA and Trump will be interested in quick approvals right now. Although, it will still follow the normal series of scientific/medical testings albeit at a faster pace. This particular school developed the first ever polio vaccine many years ago - so they have the pedigree already.

Cc dominique, Sissy3 Lalasticlala Seun Ishilove

Let’s have this on the front page.....

This is what universites are known for... Ours are on strike!

Good work. Ventilators too needs a rapid process of development like this vaccine.

LordIsaac:
This is what universites are known for... Ours are on strike!

LMAO

Nice development!

Standing5:
Good work. Ventilators too needs a rapid process of development like this vaccine.

Another American university - Massachusetts Institute of Technology(M.I.T) is on that.
Watch the video on that below courtesy of the World Economic Forum

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-cQ2UxAfjS/?igshid=sy15llv6l2tq

This is what makes America what it is - research! research and research!!! Research in Science and Tech!

The Trump administration responded quite late but America is now deploying its full research power - courtesy of its universities and scientists.

Lovely. Meanwhile our universities that are supposed to be research institutions and environment are under lock not due to lockdown to avoid spread but because of IPPIS.

What is ASUU members doing for us self. Not even facemask or sanitizers? Na wa o.

Crispels:


Another American university - Massachusetts Institute of Technology(M.I.T) is on that.
Watch the video on that below courtesy of the World Economic Forum

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-cQ2UxAfjS/?igshid=sy15llv6l2tq

This is what makes America what it is - research! research and research!!! Research in Science and Tech!

The Trump administration responded quite late but America is now deploying its full research power - courtesy of its universities and scientists.

True. Where is our beloved. ASUU. Not even masks or liquid sanitizers. And later they will us the number of third class and pass student to be boasting about some phantom standard. God help us.

Those asking for Nigeria.

Where the labs dey?

If you know the cost of setting some of these labs up eeh.

Cost of research centers

sapientia:
Those asking for Nigeria.

Where the labs dey?

If you know the cost of setting some of these labs up eeh.

Cost of research centers

..
They have zero idea...

sapientia:
Those asking for Nigeria.

Where the labs dey?

If you know the cost of setting some of these labs up eeh.

Cost of research centers

Exactly. It is very expensive to set up labs and carry out world class scientific research. The amount that many of these American universities annually invest in research is more than Nigeria’s total annual budget. Nigeria’s total annual budget is below 15 trillion naira and many of these American schools have annual endowments that is close to 20trillion naira.

The same way I laugh when Nigerians compare themselves to Americans because the country released 2trillion dollars COVID-19 stimulus package for its citizens and economy. Did they even bother to convert 2trillion dollars to naira? 2 trillion dolllars is over 750 trillion naira! If you calculate Nigeria’s total annual budgets from 1960 to 2020 - it will not be up to half of that 2trillion dollars. In fact, our entire GDP multiplied by three is not up to America’s stimulus package. The economy of California(due to the Tech Companies in Silicon Valley, Hollywood et al) alone is bigger than the whole of Africa’s economy put together. Nigeria, with its size, does not have the economy and prosperity to compete at the top level yet - even if oil sells at 200 dollars per barrel.

I agree that corruption has ruined Nigeria but even at that - Nigeria’s economy is not diversified enough to compare to Texas’s(just one state in the US) economy.

We still need to invest massively in human capital and stimulate knowledge-based economy in the country before we can start comparing ourselves to even South Korea. We also need to revolutionize manufacturing and export to stand a chance at developing.

As it stands now, with all our oil and stuff, our current economy is not wealthy enough to provide world class infrastructures and social amenities for a population of over 200million people. We need to diversify and generate more wealth. Nigeria should not have an annual budget that is less than 400trillion naira if we are really serious about development.

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