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Coronavirus vaccine: Engineered virus tested on mice offers hope for protection against Covid-19, scientists say

A new study on mice offers hope for a vaccine against coronavirus, according to the researchers behind it.

The latest research successfully protected mice against a lethal dose of Mers, a very close relative of the new coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

Scientists suggest that the same delivery method could work against Sars-CoV-2, the virus responsible for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
When those same mice were exposed to a usually lethal dose of Mers, four weeks later, all of them survived.

Scientists now hope they can use the largely harmless virus – known as parainfluenza virus 5 or PIV5 – to deliver vaccines for other coronavirus diseases.

“Using the same strategy, vaccine candidates based on PIV5 expressing the spike protein of Sars-CoV-2 have been generated. We are planning more studies in animals to test the ability of PIV5-based vaccines in preventing disease caused by Sars-CoV-2.”

The research is published this week in mBio, a journal of the American Society of Microbiology.

The Independent

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