COVID-19 vaccine developed by The Ottawa Hospital showing promise following animal testing
Posted Dec 14, 2021 12:38:00 PM.
A COVID-19 vaccine is being developed by The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), and researchers feel it could help in the global fight against the virus.
The vaccine is currently dubbed 'TOH-Vac1,' and unlike other World Health Organization (WHO) approved shots, it replicates inside the body's cells. This means once the vaccine is injected, it spreads a very tiny amount, leading to a very potent immune response.
Despite the vaccine not having undergone human testing yet, Dr. John Bell, senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa, says animal testing is showing positive signs.
“With a single, quite low dose of this vaccine in animals, in both rodents and in non-human primates, we could generate a really good immune response that's long-lasting — over six months — and it hadn't really changed at all,” Bell told CityNews Ottawa. “It looks like it's a very potent vaccine.”
He adds, the technology being used in this vaccine can be used for other variants of COVID-19 or other viruses all together, in the event of another pandemic.
“We think just a single shot of this [vaccine] may be sufficient to generate long-lasting immunity against whatever antigen we decide to put into it,” Bell explained. “In the future, if there's other pandemics for instance, we could very rapidly put those viral proteins into this vector.”
However, in order to move forward with human testing, the hospital requires additional support from governments or other partners.
Bell and his team, who normally focus on cancer-related vaccines, shifted their work and began working on this vaccine when the pandemic broke out.
