The world’s leading general medical journals, Lancet, said on Monday that COVID-19 accine developed in the UK is safe and induces an immune reaction, according to preliminary results.
Preliminary results from a phase 1/2 trial involving 1077 healthy adults found that vaccine induced strong antibody and T cell immune responses up to day 56 of the ongoing trial.
These responses may be even greater after a 2nd dose, according to a sub-group study of 10 participants.
Authors say further clinical studies, including in older adults, should be done with this vaccine. Current results focus on immune response measured in the laboratory. Further testing is needed to confirm if vaccine effectively protects against infection
Compared to control group (given a meningitis vaccine), SARS-CoV-2 vaccine caused minor side effects more frequently, but some of these could be reduced by taking paracetamol. There were no serious adverse events from the vaccine.
Fatigue and headache were the most commonly reported reactions (70% [340/487] of all participants given the vaccine only reported fatigue and 68% [331/487] reported headache, vs 48% [227/477] and 41% [195/477], respectively, of participants in control group without paracetamol).
T cell responses targeting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were markedly increased (in the 43 participants studied), peaking after 14 days. The T cell response did not increase with a 2nd dose of the vaccine, which is consistent with other vaccines of this kind.
Antibody responses peaked by day 28 (median 157 ELISA units–studied in 127 participants) & remained high until d 56 (median 119 ELISA units–in 43 participants) for those given 1 dose. This response was boosted by a 2nd dose(median 639 ELISA units at d 56 in these 10 participants)
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