Type of Intervention: Specific Action
Sectors Involved: Research and Development
Intervention Categories: Research and development
Level of Jurisdiction: National
Lead People/Agency: Ministry of Science and Innovation
Overview: National Scientific Research Council (Spanish acronym: CSIC) team seeks vaccine against COVID-19 using a coronavirus antigen to stimulate immunity
A team of researchers from the National Scientific Research Council (Spanish acronym: CSIC) is looking for a vaccine against COVID-19 through the use of a gene of an antigen of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to stimulate the immunity of recipients. The method consists of placing a gene of an antigen in a synthetic ‘vehicle’ of the DNA (a plasmid) that can be introduced into the patient’s body to induce protection against the infection. The team is synthesising the corresponding DNA molecules that will be introduced into the vehicle and within two months this can be tested on mouse models.
This procedure has already been tested out on a vaccine for Canine Leishmaniasis, which is now in phase IV, whereby an application has been made to the European Medicines Agency for authorisation for its manufacture and commercialisation, explained the director of the study, the honorary research professor of the CSIC, Vicente Larraga, from the Margarita Salas Biological Research Centre.
The development of this protective vaccine has an additional benefit – the industrial scale process of the vaccine candidate has already been carried out, which would significantly bring forward the industrial phase of manufacturing, human testing and its subsequent production if the results of testing were positive. This is the third CSIC project that is seeking a vaccine against the coronavirus, together with those headed up by Luis Enjuanes and Isabel Sola, and by Mariano Esteban and Juan García Arriaza, both through the National Bio-technology Centre (Spanish acronym: CNB-CSIC).
Full details here: https://www.csic.es/es/actualidad-del-csic/un-equipo-del-csic-busca-una-vacuna-para-covid-19-que-usa-un-antigeno-del
Type of Justification: Scientific Evidence (e.g. academic paper, report)
Source of Evidence or Justification: National – academic