Thanks, Science
Chris M. sent in a link to this story today: One vaccine may provide broad protection against many respiratory infections and allergens.
I know, that sounds impossible. Here's some detail:
Since the 1790s, when the English physician Edward Jenner coined the term vaccination (from the Latin vacca for cow) to refer to the use of cowpox to inoculate against smallpox, all subsequent vaccines have relied on the same fundamental principle: antigen specificity. That is, the vaccine mimics a distinctive component of the pathogen — the spike proteins that cover SARS-CoV-2, for example — to prepare the immune system to recognize and react quickly to the real pathogen.
“That’s been the paradigm of vaccinology for the last 230 years,” Pulendran said.
But antigen-specific vaccines fail when a pathogen mutates or when new pathogens emerge.
The new vaccine doesn’t try to mimic any part of a pathogen; instead, it mimics the signals that immune cells use to communicate with each other during an infection. This novel strategy integrates the two branches of immunity — innate and adaptive — creating a feedback loop that sustains a broad immune response.
The adaptive immune system is the workhorse of current vaccines. It produces specialized agents, like antibodies and T cells, that target specific pathogens and remember them for years to come. The innate immune system, which deploys within minutes of a new infection, has received less attention because it typically lasts only a few days before ceding the spotlight to the adaptive immune system.
How does it work?
The new vaccine, for now known as GLA-3M-052-LS+OVA, mimics the T cell signals that directly stimulate innate immune cells in the lungs. It also contains a harmless antigen, an egg protein called ovalbumin or OVA, which recruits T cells into the lungs to maintain the innate response for weeks to months.
The full article has much more detail, but the response level is astonishing. Oh, and what does it protect against? Viruses, bacterial respiratory infections, and dust mites. In other words, even allergies.
Phase I safety trials haven't begun on humans yet, so there's quite a ways to go, but this seems incredibly promising.
I wonder what the anti-vaxxer crowd will do with a nasal spray instead of a shot. It will be interesting to watch as they twist themselves into a pretzel over how it will poison the water supply or destabilize the U.N. or something.
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