Scientists at the University of Oxford have claimed that its coronavirus vaccine, in a trial phase with people, is generating a protective immune response in hundreds of people who have already received it. British researchers began testing it in April on about 1,000 people, half of whom received the vaccine. These initial trials are generally designed only to assess safety, but in this case, experts also wanted to know what type of immune response it elicited.

In research published Monday in The Lancet , scientists say they found that their experimental Covid-19 vaccine produced a dual immune response in people ages 18 to 55.

"We are seeing a good immune response in almost everyone," said Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford. "What this vaccine does particularly well is to trigger both parts of the immune system," she added. As he explained, the vaccine generates neutralizing antibodies , molecules that are key to blocking the infection. And it also causes a reaction in the body's T cells that help fight the coronavirus.

Hill has noted that larger trials are still underway evaluating the effectiveness of the vaccine , which is to be inoculated into some 10,000 people in the UK , as well as participants in South Africa and Brazil . Another big test is also planned in the United States with 30,000 more people.

How quickly scientists can determine the vaccine's effectiveness will largely depend on how much transmission there is, but Hill estimates they might have enough data by the end of the year to decide whether it should be adopted for mass campaigns. To do this, it should produce a level of antibodies comparable to those produced by people who recovered from a Covid-19 infection. Adrian Hill hopes that the T cell response will provide additional protection.

"There is increasing evidence that having a T cell and antibody response could be very important in controlling COVID-19," he said. He has also suggested that the immune response may increase after a second dose; the trial actually tested two doses administered approximately four weeks apart.

As he has explained, the Oxford vaccine is designed to reduce disease and transmission . It uses a harmless virus, a chimpanzee cold virus, designed so that it cannot spread, to transport the protein from the tip of the coronavirus to the body, which should trigger a response from the immune system.

Recall that the University of Oxford has partnered with the drug maker AstraZeneca to produce its vaccine worldwide, and that the company has already committed to producing 2 billion doses.

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