IISc ‘warm vaccine’ neutralises Omicron too: CSIRO study

BENGALURU: The ‘warm’ vaccine formulations developed by scientists at IISc and biotech firm Mynvax result in antibodies that neutralise the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2, independent studies conducted by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have shown.


CSIRO is an Australia’s national science agency that had done crucial animal tests for the Oxford-Covishield vaccine candidate

Developed by professor Raghavan

Varadarajan

of IISc in conjunction with Mynvax, this vaccine remains stable for a month at 37°C, and freeze-dried versions could tolerate temperatures as high as 100°C. One of the six formulations tested by CSIRO was developed following discussions between Varadarajan and CSIRO’s Covid-19 science leader Prof Seshadri

Vasan

.

"Such ‘warm’ vaccines can be stored and transported without expensive cooling equipment to remote areas for mass vaccination - most vaccines need to be stored between 2-8°C or much colder temperatures to avoid losing their potency," the IISc has said about the vaccine.

Prof

SS Vasan

, who led the CSIRO study, told TOI: "We tested six Mynvax vaccine formulations that elicited high antibody titres in mice. Our data (that’s going through peer-review) shows that these antibodies, especially in response to the monomeric formulations, neutralised the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern including Delta and Omicron (BA.1.1). The average 14.4-fold reduction in neutralisation against BA.1.1 compares favourably with other Covid-19 vaccines, so the monomeric formulation is preferable for Phase 1 clinical studies. There is potential for increasing efficacy with vaccine matching (tweaking) to improve responses against emerging variants."

"These findings are consistent with biomolecular modelling and AlphaFold predictions which show that while oligomeric presentation can be generally beneficial, it can make important epitopes inaccessible and elicit unwanted titres against the oligomerisation domain," says the pre-print of the study, which is now available publicly.

Clinical trials and more
Gautham Nadig, executive director, Mynvax, while terming CSIRO’s contributions critical and important, told TOI: "We are now a step closer to manufacturing materials for clinical trials as the process of procuring grants for it is progressing well."

Vasan added that the thermostability of this vaccine and its ability to withstand transient heat shocks is especially promising to address vaccine inequity that affects most low and lower middle-income countries.

"Indeed, the vaccination rate in low-income countries is 13 times less than that of upper middle-income and high-income countries, and one of the key barriers is the cold chain requirement which this vaccine overcomes," he added.

CSIRO’s special advisor for health Dr

Rob Grenfell

has said in a related press release that "A thermostable or ‘warm vaccine’ is critical for remote or resource-limited locations with extremely hot climates which lack reliable cold storage supply chains, including regional communities in Australia’s outback and the Indo-Pacific region."

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