Hungarian-Austrian vaccine about to be tested on animals

Hungarian and Austrian researchers are working on a second-generation protein-based vaccine. They are about to enter a new phase in the process and start testing on animals.

The Virology Research Group of the University of Pécs (PTE), together with Austrian biotechnology company CEBINA started a vaccine development project last year. They wish to develop a second-generation modern subunit vaccine.

According to 24, they are already done with the in vitro laboratory phase, and after evaluating the results, they are planning the animal testing phase, which will most likely start at the end of January or beginning of February.

The Hungarian-Austrian vaccine research is a little bit different from others as the vaccine they are developing belongs to the category of second-generation protein-based vaccines.

As Ferenc Jakab, professor at PTE and the head of the National Virology Laboratory, explained, there are three types of vaccines. The first-generation vaccines are traditional virus vaccines containing inactivated/killed viruses, and these were used already in the 1950s. Then came the second generation of vaccines, most of which are subunit vaccines, using more modern, molecular biology technologies and only a certain protein of the pathogen.

Lastly, the most modern and advanced vaccines are third-generation vaccines. These are the RNA vaccines developed during the pandemic by Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna. In third-generation vaccines, the protein synthesis does not take place in the lab but in the human body.

According to Jakab, showing 95-100% efficiency, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are very good and, based on our current knowledge, they also protect us against the coronavirus mutations that we know as of today.

The vaccine is very important because if we develop a level of immunity, and then encounter a new mutation of the virus, we will still be protected, just maybe not 95 or 100% but 70-75%. Even though the coronavirus is not likely to change fundamentally, different mutations of it are possible to be found in the future.

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Source: 24.hu