Innovation has grown exponentially as scientists search for ways to prevent, treat and cure Covid-19, and a lab at the University of Cape Town has found itself at the cutting edge in the war on coronaviruses.
The biopharming research unit have come a step closer to producing plant-made vaccines that could serve the country and the continent.
While vaccines have proven extraordinarily successful, not everyone responds to vaccination and immunity can wane in individuals at different times.
— Rosalind Franklin Institute’s Prof Jim Naismith
Dr Emmanuel Margolin, a researcher in the unit, said the team was already researching plant-made vaccines to fight diseases such as HIV when Covid-19 struck.
“We quickly pivoted our technology platform,” he said, and the team recently reported the expression, in plants, of a near-full length SARS-CoV-2 spike vaccine. These are early days for plant-based vaccine technology, said Margolin, but it could be a future game-changer if it can attract investment.
“Most traditional vaccines are made using mammalian cells, but the infrastructure is expensive and we don’t yet have it in Africa, whereas developed countries do,” said Margolin. Another innovation is a microneedle patch that delivers a Covid-19 vaccine into the skin, causing strong immune responses in cells and mice.
The patch can be stored for over 30 days at room temperature, which is good news for countries lacking the resources to refrigerate or freeze some of the current vaccines.
The rectangular microneedle patch effectively “delivers a Covid-19 vaccine under the skin, causing potent and durable immunity, without the need for a cold chain or painful injections”, said researchers from the American Chemical Society.
They based their vaccine on DNA which is easier to make and more stable than RNA or protein.
Scientists at the Rosalind Franklin Institute in the UK are working on a nasal spray that relies on a “unique type of tiny antibody produced by llamas”.
According to the researchers, these nanobodies — smaller, simple forms of antibodies — target the SARS-CoV-2 virus, “bind tightly to it” and neutralise it.
They said the technology could provide a cheaper and easier-to-use alternative to human antibodies taken from patients who have recovered from Covid-19.
“While vaccines have proven extraordinarily successful, not everyone responds to vaccination and immunity can wane in individuals at different times,” said the institute’s Prof Jim Naismith, adding that “not all of the world is being vaccinated at the same speed” which means innovation in treatment is important.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.