Stanford researchers work on universal vaccine for respiratory viruses, allergens
By CBS Bay Area
Researchers at Stanford University are leading efforts on a one-of-a-kind universal nasal respiratory vaccine.
Professor Bali Pulendran is leading the pre-clinical trial, where his researchers administered this vaccine on mice.
“Look what happens in a mouse that did get this universal vaccine maybe a month prior or three months prior. Then they had infection with SARS-CoV2. You can see within three days, there’s beautiful structures that form. These are tertiary lymphoid structures. And this is what you need to get an amazing immune response to the virus,” Pulendran told CBS News Bay Area.
This universal vaccine would attack respiratory viruses like COVID-19, different types of bacteria and allergens.
“Our bodies have two different kind of immune systems. One is the adaptive immune system that is comprised of B cells that make antibodies and T cells that can kill infected cells,” Pulendran said. “What we’ve done here is to figure out, ‘how is it that you could trigger the innate immune system to launch much broader protection than what can be afforded by the adaptive immune system?'”
“What this is, is something that doesn’t contain any bits of any virus or any pathogen. It is completely agnostic to the pathogen or the virus. It doesn’t know what the offending pathogen might be,” he added.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, said this is an innovative tool to help save lives.
“This is kind of a general tool for general infections. And I think it really does have its place eventually when it’s tested in humans, we figure out a way to deliver it properly to noses and respiratory systems which is different from mice,” Chin-Hong told CBS News Bay Area. “In the future, this might be something you deploy in the beginning if there’s a new pandemic like bird flu or something new that we don’t know about.”
Chin-Hong added that there is still much work to be done.
“It doesn’t really take away yet from the need for high-risk populations, getting that specific intervention for infections that can have a toll on that particular population. Say like flu in those who are very young and very old, or RSV in the very young and very old as well,” he said. “Even though it has a lot of promise, I think there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done but it is thinking outside of the box. Thinking of a new way of taking advantage of all parts of our immune system.”
Pulendran says the next step is to test the vaccine on healthy humans.
“What we’re trying to do is design human studies where these can be administered to humans. And ask is it safe and is it efficacious?” Pulendran said.
He added that it’ll take anywhere from three to five years for the study on humans, and said he is optimistic as their work is just getting started.
