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First needle-less Covid vaccine that could work against all variants enters human trials

Forty adults will receive an experimental Covid booster jab designed to work on all past, present and future forms of the virus

By Joe Pinkstone, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
14 December 2021 • 6:00am
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/14/first-needle-less-covid-vaccine-could-work-against-variants/

Scientists at the University of Cambridge are set to administer the first needle-less, air-powered Covid vaccine on Tuesday that could work against all variants.

The phase one clinical trial is being conducted in Southampton and will see 40 adults receive an experimental Covid booster jab.

Named DIOSvax, the vaccine is made with DNA and is designed to work on all past, present and future forms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19.

It does this by targeting a highly conserved region of the pathogen’s family that is ubiquitous across coronaviruses, so it should in theory work against not only SARS-CoV-2, but also other similar viruses like SARS, the virus behind a smaller epidemic in 2002.

Volunteers will be paid £785 to receive the jab and must be between 18- and 50-years-old, as well as having already had their first two doses but not a booster.

'It presents the immune system with a picture of tomorrow's virus'
“Essentially, what it does is instead of taking yesterday's virus [like current jabs], it presents the immune system with a picture of tomorrow's virus,” Prof Jonathan Heeney, head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics at the University of Cambridge and developer of the vaccine, told The Telegraph.

“We're trying to do it in such a way that it will not only protect us from the next variants, but the next pandemic virus that comes from the coronavirus family.”

The design of the vaccine means it does not need to be inserted deep between a person’s muscles to be effective, and only needs to penetrate the skin a small distance. Prof Heeney said it is not painful and can be easily done with a puff of air.

“It should [work against omicron] but we won’t know until we get it fully tested, but this is the first of a new generation of vaccines,” he said.

Saul Faust, clinical chief investigator and director of the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility, added: “This isn’t simply ‘yet another’ coronavirus vaccine as it has both Covid-19 variants and future coronaviruses in its sights.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/14/first-needle-less-covid-vaccine-could-work-against-variants/