Oxford Coronavirus vaccine trial shows promising results, studies reveal triggered immune response

Last updated on March 1st, 2023 at 07:07 am

Coronavirus vaccine hopes are raised as Oxford University vaccine trials showed promising results which were deemed safe with expected immune response being triggered in the volunteering people. Prof. Sarah Gilbert from Oxford’s Jenner Institute said that the results look promising as the first dose response triggered in patients was well under expectations.

Prof. Gilbert told The Guardian, “We’re really pleased that it seems to be behaving just as we thought it would do. We have quite a lot of experience of using this technology to make other vaccines, so we knew what we expected to see, and that’s what we have seen.”

The trial results from Phase 1 of 2 were published in The Lancet on Monday which was conducted by the Oxford University and Astra Zeneca in 1000 healthy volunteers. The closely watched early results indicate a safe immune response in people participating in the trial. Researchers however stressed that more study in this direction is needed for a long-term effect of vaccine on patients.

Apart from the results of Oxford University vaccine trial results from two other trials for coronavirus vaccine were published on Monday. Phase 2 results of a vaccine candidate by CanSino Biologics, a Chinese company were also published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet. Apart from that Phase 1 of 2 trial results of vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech were published in pre-print which is still to be peer reviewed.

The Oxford vaccine triggered an antibody response in 28 days and T-cell response within 14 days. Neutralizing antibodies, i.e. antibodies that can “neutralize” the virus, were detected to be present in most of the patients after one shot of vaccine and in all the patients after two shots, said the report published in The Lancet.

UK Prime Minister lauded the results as very positive and promising. He added, “There are no guarantees, we’re not there yet and further trials will be necessary – but this is an important step in the right direction.”

UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock applauded about the results obtained from the Oxford vaccine trials.

The Oxford vaccine trial which was conducted in over 1000 healthy volunteers, involved half of subjects being given vaccine while the other half were given a meningitis vaccine. The results published in The Lancet are preliminary showcasing the effect of vaccine on immune response and T-cell number generated in the person’s blood.

Large scale trials for the vaccine have commenced in South Africa and Brazil where the number of coronavirus cases is fairly large and continuously rising. The immune response is triggered in a body to any infectious pathogen through two portals – antibodies and T-cell response. The vaccine is intended to trigger both the pathways for a better immune response against the coronavirus – targeting both the infected cells and the virus that is circulating in the blood.

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