McMaster University announced that Health Canada has cleared a Phase 1 trial of two inhaled adenovirus vector vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, and the study is set to begin shortly. The trial is expected to enroll at least 30 healthy volunteers who have already received two doses of an mRNA vaccine. Each of the participants will receive a single dose of one of the nebulized vaccines as a booster. Three dose levels of each of the vaccines will be evaluated.
Both of the inhaled vaccines are designed specifically to work against variants of concern and express two additional SARS-CoV-2 proteins besides the spike protein, targeting portions of the virus that are unlikely to mutate. Principal investigator and Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine Fiona Smaill commented, “It is critical to continue research on new forms of COVID vaccines that work in a different way and could be used to boost immunity in people who have already been vaccinated. By targeting a breadth of immune responses to different parts of the COVID virus, we expect to see broader protection.”
Co-principal investigator and Professor of Medicine Zhou Xing added, “Our vaccine strategy differs from all of the current first-generation COVID-19 vaccines in the route of delivery. Ours gets delivered into the lung via inhaled aerosol to induce respiratory mucosal immunity, known to provide best protection against respiratory pathogens.”
According to the university, the researchers have already manufactured sufficient amounts of the vaccine to advance into further trials if Phase 1 yields positive results.
Read the McMaster University press release.
Watch a McMaster video on the inhaled vaccines:
