Academia Sinica researchers have developed a series of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines that, according to early results, could be highly effective against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Biomedical Translation Research Center researcher Tao Mi-hua (陶秘華) on Friday said that an Omicron-specific vaccine developed by the center produced 37 times as many neutralizing antibodies as other COVID-19 vaccines.
It was one of four vaccines created during the world-leading research project, together with Delta-specific, Omicron-Delta hybrid-specific and half-dose bivalent types.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
While the initial findings showed the Omicron vaccine to be effective in tackling the highly transmissible variant, it was weaker against other strains of the disease.
The Delta-specific and half-dose bivalent types proved most capable of producing neutralizing antibodies for a broad spectrum of mutations.
The early results led the researchers to say that such vaccine types might be the foundation for the next generation of COVID-19 jabs amid increasing concerns over breakthrough infections and immune escape.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The inception of the project, focused on messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines, came after Taiwan detected its first cases of COVID-19 in early 2020, Tao said.
The researchers shifted their focus to include the Omicron variant after the WHO declared it the dominant strain worldwide in November last year, he said.
Within two weeks, the team had developed a framework for the research, and it took them another week to produce a vaccine sample, he said.
All four types were tested on mice that had been fully vaccinated with an existing COVID-19 vaccine within the past year, Tao said.
The findings might be used in other applications, such as tackling viruses like Zika and avian flu, as well as in adaptable vaccines for cancer, allergies and gene therapy, he said.
However, the process of getting such vaccines into mass production is long and arduous, involving lab work, clinical trials and manufacturing, he said.
Work on the four COVID-19 vaccines is at the lab stage, Tao said, adding that after publishing initial results on Jan. 31, he expects to have more complete results by the middle of this month as the team prepares its findings for peer review and publication.
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