One Los Angeles Lakers owner is developing a coronavirus vaccine that would not need an injection.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his team of researchers are testing whether oral pills can work in conjunction with – or even better than – vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration, CBS Los Angeles reports.
The three vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States – by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – work by creating antibodies that neutralize the ear protein that the coronavirus uses to enter and infect human cells.
But the team’s new vaccine is aimed at the balloon-like shape in the midst of the virus, which doesn’t usually mutate.
In addition, the team claims that the vaccine would be faster, cheaper and easier to administer, as it should not be stored in the refrigerator or in cold temperatures.
Researchers at Chan Soon-Shiong Research Institute are developing a new COVID-19 oral vaccine (at the top) aimed at the balloon-like shape in the middle of the virus
One of the developers, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (pictured), a partial owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, says the new vaccine would also generate T cells, which bind and kill viruses.
“Having a vaccine at room temperature, which could be a pill, changes lives,” one of the researchers, Dr. Tara Seery, of the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Medicine in El Segundo, California, told CBS Los Angeles. .
For the trial, which is currently in Phase I, the team divided the volunteers into four groups to see how the pills worked.
One group received only pills, the second received only one injection, the third received pills and one injection, and the fourth received none.
The new oral vaccine also targets a part of the coronavirus that is less prone to mutation.
Most of the most recognized variants, including from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil, have mutations that affect the ear protein of the virus.
This protein is what the coronavirus uses to “hijack” human cells, make multiple copies of them, and spread throughout the body.
But the new oral vaccine attacks the center of the virus known as the lipid bilayer envelope, to which the ear protein is anchored.
“And the value of doing that is that we generate killer T cells,” Soon-Shiong told CBS Los Angeles.
T cells are types of white blood cells that bind to viruses and kill them.
The team believes that by generating both antibodies and T cells, the receptors would have long-lasting protection.
An average of about three million adults are vaccinated every day, with a total of one day reaching four million over the weekend.
Currently, 108.3 million Americans (32.6% of the population) have received at least one dose and 63 million (19%) are fully immunized.
Soon-Chong says researchers are also testing a combination of an injection and oral vaccines because he believes we may both need to fight the virus.
“Giving a punch, we hope to develop T cells all over the body,” he told the station.
“And by administering it orally, we protect the mucous membranes, the intestine and wait for the nose, the mouth, because that’s how the virus enters. It doesn’t enter the blood.”
The trial is open to adults between the ages of 18 and 55 who have never tested positive for COVID-19 and are not immunodeficient. Those who want to sign up can visit here.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 108.3 million Americans (32.6% of the population) have received at least one dose and 63 million (19%) are fully immunized.
An average of about three million adults are vaccinated every day, with a total of one day reaching four million over the weekend.
