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CBC news 란다.

Western University

Location: London, Ont.

Vaccine type: Replicating viral vector

Stage of development: Preclinical

In March, vaccine researchers at Western University in London, Ont., were just starting Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials for a vaccine against the MERS coronavirus.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada that month, the trials were put on hold. But the researchers didn't stop working ― they just switched to SARS-CoV-2 instead.

The system they had been working on was a replicating viral vector vaccine, using the same viral vector as the University of Manitoba, the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV).

Stephen Barr, an associate professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and co-leader of the vaccine team, said when the coronavirus spike protein gene is inserted into VSV, the virus develops a coat around it that looks like SARS-CoV-2, which teaches the immune system to recognize it.

"You don't need to inject a lot of the virus into the body because it can make copies of itself," Barr said. That could make it quicker and cheaper to produce than vaccines based on non-replicating viruses. "And also because it can make copies of itself, it mimics more what a natural virus would do. It would go through that whole process of finding a cell, getting into a cell, making proteins."

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The technology, unlike some others, has already been commercialized and shown to work for the Ebola vaccine ― "which is why we think it will have a good chance of success," Barr said.

As of early October, Barr said two versions of the COVID-19 vaccine had generated good antibody responses in animal tests. The team is trying to get funding to proceed to combined Phase 1/2 clinical trials.
 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canadian-vaccine-candidates-covid-coronavirus-1.5764874