US scientists said Thursday that preliminary experiments in mice to produce a possible vaccine for "Covid 19" at a dose that does not exceed the size of the finger mind showed that it may stimulate an immune response against the emerging corona virus at levels that may prevent infection.
Researchers around the world are working on developing possible treatments or vaccines for the respiratory disease, which has killed about 47,000 people and infected nearly a million people within a few months.
A team at Pittsburgh Medical College in the United States said that it was able to move quickly towards developing a possible vaccine for "Covid 19" after working on other corona viruses that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome.
"These two viruses are closely related to SARS COV-2 (while the coronavirus causes an epidemic of Covid 19) that teach us that a specific protein called spike protein is necessary to provide immunity from the virus," said Andrea Gambuto, associate professor at Pittsburgh. "Where are we fighting this emerging virus?"
On experimenting with mice, the prototype of the vaccine, which researchers called PetcoFac, was able to happen what they described as a "spike in antibodies" to the emerging corona virus within two weeks.
Pittsburgh researchers warned that because animals had not been followed for a long time yet, it was too early to say whether the immune response against Covid 19 would be effective and for how long.
But they said that, compared to tests on mice of the experimental vaccine for Middle East respiratory syndrome, an adequate level of antibodies had been produced to weaken the virus for at least a year.
The team said that it hopes to begin testing the proposed vaccine in humans in clinical trials within the next few months