First Human Trials of the World's First AI-Designed Vaccine

SadaNews - In a unique precedent, scientists have used artificial intelligence to develop a "completely new" type of vaccine that could provide protection against a wide range of viruses and prevent the spread of pandemics.

The research team developing this vaccine from the University of Cambridge stated that this is the first time the main component of a vaccine has been entirely designed using artificial intelligence, and then tested on humans, according to what was reported by Science Alert.

The vaccine has been designed to combat all coronaviruses, including all variants of COVID, as well as related bat viruses that may be transmitted from animals to humans and cause future pandemics.

Work in this area is still in its early stages, but researchers are already focusing on developing other vaccines that could tackle influenza and Ebola.

Vaccines teach our bodies how to recognize infections to increase the chances of fighting them, but some viruses are adept at mutating, so vaccines can become outdated very quickly after their emergence due to the rapid appearance of new virus forms, which is why there's a need to periodically update COVID and seasonal flu vaccines.

Mechanism of Action

By analyzing the genetic data of thousands of relevant viruses, it is possible to identify the parts that remain stable across different strains and are unlikely to change over time. By targeting those stable characteristics, one can achieve an effective vaccine against all members of the viral family, not just the strain it started with.

This is exactly what the Cambridge team did; they used artificial intelligence to examine viruses from the sarbecovirus family, which includes the viruses that cause both SARS and COVID-19, as well as a variety of animal coronaviruses, searching for common characteristics that have not been significantly affected by evolution, making those characteristics the basis of the vaccine.

In this context, Professor Jonathan Heaney from the University of Cambridge said: "We are always behind" and added, "What we are trying to do is to stay ahead of the curve" and to advance enough to protect against the spread of new pandemics.

The trials, which involved 39 participants, were designed to provide an accurate assessment of the safety of this type of vaccine and whether it is safe. A future study – involving 200 participants – is expected to provide a better understanding of its efficacy in training the immune system.

The Cambridge team is already conducting animal research on universal seasonal flu vaccines that do not need to be updated every year, as well as a vaccine for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, in anticipation of the virus that currently devastates bird populations turning into a human pandemic.

They are also studying the development of a vaccine against viral hemorrhagic fevers, which include Ebola strains, as the current outbreak of this epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is due to a strain for which a vaccine has not yet been developed.