Covid-19 Researchers Find Clues on Coronavirus Immunity in Lab Animal Tests

By Peter Loftus

Coronavirus research in animals is yielding some clues about immunity and vaccines -- with a big caveat that these findings don't always translate into benefits for humans.

On Wednesday, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. scientists and their academic collaborators published data in Nature Communications showing the company's experimental DNA-based coronavirus vaccine induced immune responses in laboratory mice and guinea pigs. Researchers said the results are promising, but the more important data are expected in June from a clinical trial of the vaccine in people that started in April.

Another DNA-based vaccine, developed at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, provided protection to rhesus macaques when the vaccinated monkeys were intentionally exposed to the virus, according to a separate study published Wednesday in the journal Science'

The Beth Israel researchers, working with other institutions, also found in another study that unvaccinated monkeys who recovered from an initial coronavirus infection developed protective immunity, resulting in little to no clinical disease when exposed to the virus a second time.

Scientists are still exploring whether humans who have recovered from Covid-19 are protected from re-exposure. The new monkey data suggest it is possible, and a vaccine could build on that immune response, said Dan Barouch, principal investigator at the Beth Israel vaccine center and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

"If a virus can induce natural protective immunity in a majority of individuals, then it is much more likely there will be successful vaccines," said Dr. Barouch. He is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson on developing a coronavirus vaccine for humans, which is different from the one tested in monkeys in the new study.

Write to Peter Loftus at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 20, 2020 14:07 ET (18:07 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.