For the millions of people who do not have access to vaccines for Covid-19, a team of scientists from Boston has a possible solution. And it is literally a solution, which hopes to prevent the deadly virus.
The group is called Rapid Deployment Vaccine Collaborative, or RaDVaC, and their vaccine is so easy to make that team leader Preston Estep says we could do it in our kitchen.
Disadvantages: The vaccine has not been proven to work and does not have any permission for its circulation. It also hasn't gone through time-consuming, expensive clinical trials like those conducted by Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson. The trials carried out for this particular vaccine are the RaDVaC scientists themselves and other colleagues such as George Church of Harvard Medical School, who believe that the project has value.
Advantages: its production is very low cost and does not require high technology. The ingredients cost a penny and take less than an hour to mix together in your home - less time than it would take to make a loaf of bread.
"It's really easier than many recipes in cookbooks," says Estep, who has written a book on foods that promote brain longevity.
All the ingredients – saline solution, proteins that are similar to those of the coronavirus, and cross-linking chemicals such as chitosan, which is made from shellfish – can be purchased online.network without special permits. The recipe is open source, which means that anyone can use it.
"We want others to have the recipe," says Estep. "So we share the design, we make the vaccine and then we start testing it on ourselves."
In both rich and poor countries, there are still not enough Covid vaccines. Jutta Paulus, member of the Green Party of the European Parliament from Germany, said it has spoken with European Union regulators, its health ministry and the World Health Organization to support and vet the RaDVac team's vaccine. Without success, however, as the group deals with non-governmental organizations and pharmaceutical companies.
"I would take this vaccine experimentally," said Paulus. "My personal belief is that the risk is low and I do not expect many side effects, but it needs to be investigated."
A cheap, easily produced vaccine could be extremely important when the next pandemic comes, says Paulus.
How the vaccine works: The vaccine is essentially a mixture of parts of coronavirus proteins that recognize the human immune system. RaDVaC takes these parts, called peptides, and uses chitosan to concentrate them into nanoparticles that are similar in size to the son.
Nanoparticles have a positive load. Scientists hope that the particles will be recognized by the body's immune system, which will then activate protective antibodies and T-cells to respond in the event of an actual infection.
The protection of the nasal tissue is the key, because from there it is considered that the virus enters the body. The idea has been shown to work in animal experiments, Estep said.
Because the vaccine is so simple to make, it is also relatively easy to modify. RaDVaC has already built its 10th version, which includes copies of parts of the virus that are not included in commercial vaccines. Other parts are designed to protect against new variants that have appeared in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa. Major vaccine manufacturers are just beginning to test versions that target these mutations in humans.
