SINGAPORE – Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Monash University in Australia are developing a Covid-19 vaccine that could be ready for clinical trials by the end of next year.

The vaccine, modified from a cancer drug, has undergone animal studies, and researchers are hoping to conduct clinical trials in Singapore and Australia.

Called Clec9A-RBD, it is the third coronavirus vaccine that Singapore is involved in developing.

Known as a fusion protein vaccine, it is made by combining an antibody that targets parts of the immune system with an antigen, which induces an immune response to protect against a chosen pathogen.

Scientists can therefore rely on the same antibody to fight different diseases by simply switching the antigen that is attached to it, said one of the researchers, Associate Professor Mireille Lahoud from the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute.

She told The Straits Times on Sunday (Sept 20) that the antibody in Clec9A-RBD had previously been used to create vaccines to fight a variety of diseases, such as cancer, influenza, and hand, foot and mouth disease.

So when the pandemic struck in February, she and two other researchers decided to use it to make a vaccine that could fight against Covid-19.

The vaccine targets a specific part of the immune system known as the dendritic cells.

These cells “sample” parts of the environment around them and flag dangers to the rest of the immune system.

Likening their role to that of a conductor in an orchestra, Prof Lahoud said: “If you want to deliver a vaccine or immunotherapy, they’re the cells you want to target.”

The researchers developed a protein that binds to a receptor on these cells, teaching the immune system to fight off Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Source: Straits Times