In pursuit of the coronavirus sent a “universal vaccination”

There was such a fantastic novel in Soviet times. About how scientists came up with a universal pill. Whatever hurts – you drink, and as a hand will remove. Of course, the writer didn’t explain the principle of this pill, it’s not a writer’s business, they came up with it – and that’s it. Let’s face it, a vaccine “for everything” is something like a perpetual motion machine, everyone dreams of constructing it, although the laws of physics say otherwise. We have grown up a long time ago, but we still believe in fairy tales.

No, of course, there will always be those who will say that a universal pill, like a universal vaccine, is possible – only give an inexhaustible financial budget for research, human resources for clinical trials, and also the absence of any consequences if something goes wrong , and the magical drug will turn into its complete opposite.

However, they do believe.

Back in the past, in 2021 (by the way, just in August), the Daily Mail wrote that the universal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 was literally on the way. And by the end of the year it will certainly be presented to the suffering.

At the same time, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global partnership developing vaccines against infectious diseases, launched a £2.5 billion five-year plan to reduce or even eliminate the future risk of pandemics.

The plan included a £24 million project with a US company to develop an injection against all variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the South African and Brazilian strains, which were considered the most infectious and deadly at the time. Now, by the way, they have already forgotten to think about them.

The UK government also offered to go in search of the “holy grail”, an all-in-one vaccine against past, future and present strains. They paid 276 million pounds.

Apparently, none of the ideas was ever realized in a specific product. There is also an objective reason. All currently existing COVID-19 vaccines, except perhaps the classic ones, using the entire killed virus, vector, mRNA, do not contain the entire virus, but only its spike protein, the spike with which it enters the cell . The problem is that this “thorn from the crown” is also the most volatile part of the virus.

And since the spike protein is constantly evolving, any vaccines that use it quickly and inevitably become obsolete.

Because the strain has entered the body is already different, and the protection-vaccine is still standing from the previous update. Computer scientists will understand.

Scientists recently proposed a new concept: to create a universal vaccine, you need to get behind the S-protein, which is still not keeping up, and look at other parts of the coronavirus, isolate common characteristics and structures that are common to all strains, and then use them.

For example, scientists from the University of Nottingham are developing a vaccine against COVID-19 that targets a protein in the core of the virus, which, according to their explanations, is much less likely to mutate. But things are still there …

By the way, attempts to create a universal vaccine against the RNA virus (COVID-19 belongs to this large family) were first made back in the 60s of the last century. Then they actively took up the rhinovirus, it is he who annually causes almost half of all cases of acute respiratory viral infections in the world.

But by 1975, most of the studies were recognized as unpromising. It turned out that the rhinovirus also includes hundreds of subtypes – and against each, a separate vaccine is still required: antibodies that are synthesized in the body in response to one strain, as a rule, do not work against others. Well, there are no universal antibodies in nature. And those that are created live only a few months. Therefore, you can get sick with rhinovirus as many times as you like in your life.

On the sites of vaccine fans, both ours and those in English, one often hears offended: “How is it? Four months ago I had 2000+ BAU (international unit of measure for covid antibodies), and now they are gone. And I got sick. And my relative / friend has a high level in a year. Even though he got sick too.

And this means that everything is purely individual. The presence of antibodies in principle does not guarantee that they are neutralizing, that is, they are able to fight infection.

We still know too little about the nature of viruses to fight them on an equal footing.

Yes, over the past decades, the most important methods of molecular biology have appeared that make it possible to discover new viruses and study their subtypes. In 1983, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) was developed, then scientists first used a DNA microarray to study gene activity, in the 2000s these technologies began to be used together to identify viruses. With the help of sequencing (deciphering the sequence of DNA and RNA), it was possible to read the genetic code of 99 subtypes of the same rhinovirus.

Periodically loudly declare that research in this direction will be continued. And that sooner or later, but such a panacea will be invented.

True, for all the decades of scientific research, it never came to experiments with people. In any case, in the fight against rhinovirus. We started with monkeys, then we bred special transgenic mice susceptible to the rhinovirus in order to conduct research on them. In recent publications, it was said that another 5-10 years – and you can move on to testing on human volunteers. The main thing is not to harm. Moreover, humanity has been coexisting perfectly with the rhinovirus for many millennia.

As we remember, in the issue of coronavirus, everything was exactly the opposite. The mice and monkey stages were practically skipped.

I, like all of us, of course, would like to believe the words of scientists that a universal vaccine is possible and that it will defeat covid. The problem is that scientists, alas, do not really know anything themselves. After all, with the same unshakable confidence in the fall of 2020, they said that it was impossible to get coronavirus a second time. And then – that the vaccine is one and for life.

In the meantime, in the West they are experimenting with universal vaccines, our scientists assure that, in principle, nothing needs to be changed. The Russian vaccination, according to them, was originally universal. And it is aimed at “an infinite number of genetic variants.” The main thing is to revaccinate on time.

According to the latest innovations, the Ministry of Health has extended the validity of vaccines for the prevention of coronavirus. Previously, it was shorter, but now for different manufacturers it is from 6 to 12 months. In general, the thing is certainly necessary, since a large number of drugs have been produced that have not been used at the moment. Do not throw away.

“Information about a shorter shelf life indicated on the packaging produced before the decision to extend it is not a sign that the drug is expired,” the press service of the Ministry of Health said.

Incidentally, this practice has been repeatedly applied to drugs created in the European Union and the United States.

For 2.5 years, everyone has also somehow become accustomed to COVID-19. Yes, it is easier to get infected with the newest sub-lines of Omicron, but they also get sick easier and recover too. Maybe, well, her, this universal vaccine?

By the way, how do you like another promising direction? Not to invent a universal vaccine, but to create transgenic people who would be immune to COVID-19.