Washington (USA): An investigational vaccine called ChAdOx1 MERS has protected two groups of rhesus macaques from disease caused by Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), National Institutes of Health (NIH) said.
Pertinently, MERS-CoV is a relative of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19.
In a release, NIH said that scientists are currently pursuing similar studies with ChAdOx1 SARS2, which is a vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2.
As part of the study, the macaques were divided into three groups -- one which was vaccinated 28 days prior to infection; another which received two vaccinations, and a third control group.
Both treatment groups showed no lung damage and were protected from disease, unlike the control animals, the release stated.
Though the findings are not yet peer-reviewed, they are being shared to assist the public health response to COVID-19, the release said.
Read: Could old vaccines for other germs protect against COVID-19?
Scientists from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont., led the project. Collaborators work at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom; researchers at the University of Oxford Jenner Institute developed the ChAdOx1 vaccine technology, NIH informed.
According to NIH, the MERS vaccine is being studied in Phase 1 human clinical trials in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, while the same chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine platform also is being assessed for malaria, HIV, influenza, hepatitis C, tuberculosis and Ebola.
