San Diego researchers are working on a new type of COVID-19 vaccine, reports FOX5.
During initial trials on mice, this new vaccine proved to work well against the COVID-19 variants popping up around the world.
Scientists at Scripps Research say the new vaccine differs from the currently available vaccines because it's protein-based, which tricks the body into producing strong immune protection.
The results from testing the vaccine also show it could serve as a booster shot to protect people from emerging variants.
The vaccine worked on three variants known as B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1, which all have had medical experts concerned recently.
All three variants have spread throughout the past few months, especially in Brazil, South Africa, Europe, and the UK.
San Diego County also detected its first case of the Brazilian variant (P.1) last week.
Dr. Jiang Zhu is the scientist behind the new experimental vaccine.
"The effectiveness of our vaccine against new variants in this preclinical study is exciting, as are some of the ‘firsts’ we achieved in vaccine immunology,” said Zhu. “For example, we were able to directly image our vaccine particles in the lymph node tissues of inoculated mice, capturing the start of the antibody response.”
Dr. Zhu and the team at Scripps Research are currently working toward a clinical trial.
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