A virtual workshop in November 2022 highlighted the importance of developing mucosal vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 that could reduce transmission and infection. Participants discussed challenges and priorities, such as identifying protection correlates, improving animal models, and determining delivery methods. Though no COVID-19 mucosal vaccines have been authorized in the US or Europe, the workshop concluded that research in this area could yield benefits for both COVID-19 and other diseases.
In November 2022, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) co-hosted a virtual workshop on the importance and challenges of developing mucosal vaccines for SARS-COV-2. The highlights of this workshop have now been published as a report in npj Vaccines.
Although vaccines currently available for COVID-19 are usually effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and death, researchers recognize the need for improvement. A vaccine more effective at preventing transmission or infection with SARS-CoV-2 could reduce overall replication of the virus and associated disease burden. Because SARS-CoV-2 enters the body and is transmitted via the respiratory tract, a vaccine to promote a mucosal immune response in the respiratory tract could be better at blocking transmission and infection. Although at least 44 mucosal vaccines are currently in preclinical development, and several more are in clinical development or authorized for use in other countries, no COVID-19 mucosal vaccines have been authorized for use by regulatory agencies in the United States or Europe.
For instance, new correlates of protection must be identified and verified to evaluate whether a vaccine improves recipients' mucosal immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, and to facilitate clinical testing and regulatory approval. Improved animal models are needed to help researchers develop potential mucosal vaccines, according to the report. Careful clinical design is needed to assess the unique safety concerns related to mucosal vaccines and to appropriately evaluate whether a vaccine can block transmission of the virus. Trial design also needs to account for how vaccines will be used. Since most people have either received a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine or had a natural infection, mucosal vaccines likely will be used as boosters, and researchers will need to know how well vaccines function in people who have some prior immunity. The means of delivery also must be considered: nasal sprays, pills, liquids taken by mouth, and even nebulizers could deliver a vaccine more directly to the respiratory system, but each of these poses unique challenges to manufacture, test and deliver.
Despite these and other challenges, attendees of the workshop were optimistic about the future of mucosal vaccines for COVID-19. Considering the potential benefits that a successful candidate could bring, they concluded that research needed to further mucosal vaccine development is a priority. Such research also could even lead to improved vaccines for other diseases, such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or tuberculosis, in addition to advancing COVID-19 vaccinology.
News
Breakthrough Diabetes Treatment Reprograms the Immune System
An engineered stem cell therapy reversed new-onset Type 1 diabetes in mice by shifting the immune system away from attacking insulin-producing cells. For more than a century, people with Type 1 diabetes have relied [...]
Taking the world’s temperature: WHO chief spotlights global health emergencies
Taking the world’s temperature on pressing health matters, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus provided the latest on current global challenges - and successes when it comes to international cooperation. “The outbreaks of hantavirus, Ebola and Marburg all show [...]
Scientists Create Tiny “Mini Livers” That Could One Day Replace Liver Transplants
Engineered tissue grafts could help perform key liver functions and benefit thousands of people living with liver failure. The liver is one of the body’s hardest-working organs, carrying out hundreds of vital jobs, from [...]
NanoMedical Brain/Cloud Interface – Explorations and Implications. A new book from Frank Boehm
New book from Frank Boehm, NanoappsMedical Inc Founder: This book explores the future hypothetical possibility that the cerebral cortex of the human brain might be seamlessly, safely, and securely connected with the Cloud via [...]
Scientists Discover Surprising Way To Help the Brain Recover After Stroke
A new study suggests that strengthening the body’s natural circadian rhythms may help the brain recover after stroke, even when treatment begins days after the injury. Every year, millions of people survive a stroke, [...]
Our books now available worldwide!
Online Sellers other than Amazon, Routledge, and IOPP Indigo Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artifcial Intelligence Global Health Care Equivalency In The Age Of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine And Artificial [...]
Younger Generations Are Aging Faster – and It May Be Fueling a Surge in Cancer
Younger generations may be aging biologically faster than those before them, and that shift could help explain rising rates of cancer at younger ages. For decades, cancer was viewed largely as a disease of [...]
Using Cannabis Could Raise Your Stroke Risk by 37%, Massive Study Reveals
Large-scale evidence suggests cannabis, cocaine, and amphetamines may directly raise stroke risk, including in younger adults. As recreational drug use becomes increasingly common, researchers are uncovering evidence that its health consequences may extend far beyond [...]
Could Vitamin C Be the Secret to Keeping Your Brain Younger?
Lower vitamin C levels were linked to reduced brain volume and weaker neural connectivity in older adults, suggesting a potential connection between nutrition and brain health. Could a common vitamin help preserve the brain [...]
This Deadly Disease Was Wiping Out Humans 5,500 Years Ago
A new study suggests plague was already a deadly threat 5,500 years ago, striking small hunter-gatherer communities long before cities and agriculture emerged. For centuries, plague has been remembered as the disease that devastated [...]
China closing in but US leads in biotech quality, commercial reach, survey finds
SAN DIEGO, June 22 (Reuters) - China, which now conducts more clinical drug trials, opens new tab than the U.S., still lags in the quality and commercial reach of its biomedical science, according to a recent survey, opens new [...]
New method generates renewable supply of progenitor immune cells
In a paper published in Cell, a USC Stem Cell-led team reports a new way of generating a renewable and expandable supply of the progenitor cells that give rise to macrophages. These immune cells help [...]
Scientists Just Discovered a Cellular Survival System That Was Never Supposed To Exist
A surprising backup pathway allows cells to make a crucial amino acid when their primary machinery fails. For decades, biologists believed cells had only one way to access a molecule they cannot live without. New [...]
Artificial cells gain porous membranes, enabling lab reactions and drug release
Artificial cells created in the laboratory offer a wide range of potential applications. Until now, however, their membranes—unlike those of real cells—have been virtually impermeable. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, [...]
Popular Weight-Loss Drugs Like Ozempic Linked to Lower Breast Cancer Risk
Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs were linked to a striking 30% reduction in breast cancer risk in a study of more than 110,000 women. Popular weight-loss and diabetes medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, [...]
Stanford Scientists Discover Explosive New Type of Immune Cell
Scientists studying the remarkable regenerative abilities of planarian flatworms have uncovered a previously unknown type of immune cell with an unusually destructive defense strategy. What if an immune cell could wipe out nearby threats [...]
