COVID trials for first multivariant coronavirus jabs begin: What it means and how they will work

Vaccination against COVID-19 has emerged as one of the strongest keys in resuming a normal life, post-pandemic. While booster shots are being currently looked into, several researchers are now delving scientific know-how into the development of pan-COVID vaccines, or multi-variant vaccine jabs which are said to work against all known coronavirus variants. Countries, from UK to India are currently working on greenlighting such all-purpose jabs. While clinical trials are planned across sites, and some more planned, we explain how multivariant jabs could be the biggest change in our fight against COVID-19.

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Multivariant coronavirus vaccine jabs are all-purpose vaccine jabs which work against more than one, or different variants of a pathogen, or in this case, the several variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus. While COVID variants have taken the world by storm, considerably reduced the efficiency of current coronavirus vaccine models, and more recently, have pushed booster vaccination into use, experts suggest that multivariant COVID-19 vaccine shots can be touted to be the biggest crusader right now, since they can effectively neutralize antibodies against all known variants of circulation, including Alpha, Beta, dreaded Delta and even Gamma variant.

Having a multivariant COVID vaccine would thus render any variants of concern incapable of dodging antibodies, offer sufficient protection and be useful against all strains.

Multivariant vaccines are a hopeful candidate in our ongoing fight against coronavirus and the many variants clouding recovery. While we are currently facing threats from the Delta variant, there could be possibilities that we face newer, more deadlier variants as well, including the Mu variant, which has been said to completely surpass vaccine-driven antibodies. In such a scenario, while we hope for COVID-19 to turn into a routine-flu like disease, scientists predict that multivariant defeating jabs are the only way to get over the pandemic.

For starters, multivariant jabs are designed in a similar manner to target core spike protein of the novel coronavirus, which is used by the virus to latch onto the body's cells and cause an attack. While variants are known to escape the vaccine-immunity and bring about changes in the spike protein structures, multivariant shots go one step further, and also work against non-spike proteins. Some of the vaccines also train the immune systems by flashing key genetic information associated with the pathogen, to help identify and fight the virus, and assay variants which may pose danger.

Some of the vaccine technologies, such as the SaRNA vaccines, much like mRNA vaccines do not contain actual fragments of the virus, but carry genetic instructions to identify and launch an attack against the virus.

Flu vaccines are the only currently used multivariant vaccines being used to launch tolerable immune responses against different flu strains.

Medical authorities across the globe are currently working on development of some all-purpose, variant-defeating COVID vaccine models. One of the most prominent ones amongst these is being currently pushed into the clinical trial phase in Britain.

As per reports, pharma giant Gritstone, in partnership with the University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is conducting trials of the vaccine formulation titled 'GRT-R910', wherein volunteers over the age of 60 will be recruited initially, and more data will be published in the coming months.

In India, there are growing reports that authorities are considering developing 'cocktail' COVID vaccine formulations which could work against different variants of the virus in circulation. While the development is still said to be in its preliminary stages, authorities are considering working on expanding the potential of homegrown inactivated virus platforms, such as the one Covaxin is built on.

Elsewhere, countries like the US, Israel, Germany, France are also working on upgrading and remodeling vaccine technology platforms to meet the challenges posed by the fast-mutating coronavirus.

Since variants of the virus have fueled havoc and caused many breakthroughs, many countries are pushing third (booster doses) into use. Even with the benefits, several experts have raised concerns over the supply and inequality issues it could create, and a stronger need to have strengthened, longer-lasting vaccine protection available. Researchers who are working on developing all-purpose jabs argue that instead of issuing repeated booster shots, having multivariant COVID jabs could be a better shot right now.

While we do not yet know about the efficacy and exact protection offered by these vaccine models, a multivariant vaccine could work against any present variants , and future variants which could raise concern and offer a uniform immune response. For example, the Gritstone vaccine is said to be a second-generation, self-amplifying COVID vaccine which could boost immunogenicity of first-gen COVID vaccines. The researchers will also work to see if the inoculation of the universal vaccine dose, in addition to the primary first-gen vaccines (such as Pfizer, Astrazeneca) could generate a better, more tolerable immune response than booster shots.

Since the current-use (first-gen) vaccines were modelled largely on the original strain and not any of the variants of concern, having multivariant vaccines could offer a preventive response against all known variants and provide ample protection, without the need for added dosage, or mixing vaccine formulations.

Multivariant vaccines are currently at the very early stages of planning and production right now. While several countries are planning to roll out these vaccines, only the Gritstone-NHS-Manchester University partnered vaccine has progressed onto phase I clinical trial, which means that the results from the trials will only finish by 2022, and it can take a longer while for us to have those vaccines on hand.

As stated above, the vaccines are still at a nascent stage of production and planning, and it's too early to call on its success, despite them being considered highly hopeful. We'll only start to know more about any weak points, or actual protection and immunogenicity profiles, once the vaccines are actually approved for use.