Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Nov 15, 2024 3:26:45 GMT
Improving COVID-19 vaccines by studying long-term immune responses to them - Published Nov 14, 2024
Do COVID-19 bivalent vaccines mount a strong defence against the virus? Could we ever use them to prevent COVID-19 as well as reduce symptoms of infection? These and other important questions are currently being explored by the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group. Their work is important now and for future pandemics and epidemics. It has received support from the Office for Health and Medical Research, as part of the COVID-19 Research Program.
Keeping ahead of the COVID-19 curve
In 2021, the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group received funding from NSW Health to investigate clinical and immunological responses to COVID-19 vaccines in NSW recipients. The introduction of bivalent vaccines in 2022 enabled one vaccine to protect against two different COVID-19 strains. To ensure ongoing bio-preparedness, in 2023, NSW Health provided additional funding. This has supported a sub-study to understand bivalent vaccine effectiveness against current and emerging COVID-19 variants within the NSW population.
“Utilising a network of top immunology experts, diagnostic scientists and clinicians, the ongoing funding is supporting a statewide approach to studying and developing vaccines,” explains Professor Tony Cunningham, Director of the Centre for Virus Research at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research. “The NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group brings together significant expertise across the vaccine discovery and development pipeline and is supporting further collaborative activities and industry engagement around COVID-19 vaccines,” says Cunningham, who is also a Vaccine Theme Leader in the University of Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases and a Leadership Fellow for the National Health and Medical Research Council. “NSW Health support for several ongoing research projects of the Group, has already resulted in impactful publications and provided advice to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.”
Bivalent vaccines trigger broader immune response
“Our first paper showed that over time, the body’s immune responses to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were capable of broadening to cope with subsequent waves of infection,” says Cunningham. “The second paper, soon to be published in Lancet eBioMedicine, has looked at the comparison between the newer bivalent vaccines when directed against the originally identified COVID-19 strain and subsequent strains, such as Omicron variants. This study confirmed that the bivalent vaccine can give somewhat broader immunity due to the response of memory B cells to the bivalent vaccine.” Memory B cells are a type of lymphocyte – which is an immune cell originally made in bone marrow and found in the bloodstream and mostly in lymph glands. They are involved in the body’s adaptive immune response and provide ‘memory’ by producing appropriate antibodies when a new infection occurs.
Ongoing research by the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group is being used to help develop a vaccine with increased durability, so that the coverage lasts longer. “We also want to improve vaccine breadth of activity so it protects against different strains,” Cunningham points out. “A harder target, to which we will contribute, is to develop a vaccine that can inhibit the spread of the COVID-19 virus in addition to reducing severity of symptoms.”
Immunity secrets of bloodbank samples
Research by the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group is utilising two biobanks formed between 2021 and 2023 to store blood samples from people representative of the NSW population. Around 500 participants contributed samples via Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Westmead Hospital. Their blood was taken before and after the participants were immunised and as they continued to have further COVID-19 boosters within the two-year follow-up. Throughout that period some of those donors also developed breakthrough COVID-19 infections.
“These blood samples have provided a goldmine of information that is helping us to explore how long immunity lasts after COVID-19 vaccines and boosters,” Cunningham says. “We are using them to investigate why antibody response declines, related also to factors such as age and sex. This will enable us to better understand how long COVID-19 protection lasts between the boosters, what effect the boosters have, what the impact of breakthrough COVID-19 infections is on immunity and why those breakthroughs occur. This information will guide improvement of booster vaccines to help make them more efficient and long-lasting. The biobank samples are also being used by other researchers as baseline immune responses for understanding other aspects of COVID-19.”
Addressing covid challenges
“The protective antibodies stimulated by COVID-19 vaccines are directed at a certain protein on the surface of the virus but the virus is able to change the shape of that protein,” Cunningham explains. To learn how to more effectively address these changes, the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Research Group is looking at antibodies and the whole immune system, which has multiple responses that interact with each other. A major aim is to try to reduce the number of COVID-19 boosters people need for protection.
“The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been an extraordinary success story,” says Cunningham. “In 2020, they probably saved 20 million lives globally. They’re extraordinarily effective in all age groups, including the ageing. The main ongoing challenge with the vaccines is that the virus keeps changing and our antibodies decline.”
Do COVID-19 bivalent vaccines mount a strong defence against the virus? Could we ever use them to prevent COVID-19 as well as reduce symptoms of infection? These and other important questions are currently being explored by the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group. Their work is important now and for future pandemics and epidemics. It has received support from the Office for Health and Medical Research, as part of the COVID-19 Research Program.
Keeping ahead of the COVID-19 curve
In 2021, the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group received funding from NSW Health to investigate clinical and immunological responses to COVID-19 vaccines in NSW recipients. The introduction of bivalent vaccines in 2022 enabled one vaccine to protect against two different COVID-19 strains. To ensure ongoing bio-preparedness, in 2023, NSW Health provided additional funding. This has supported a sub-study to understand bivalent vaccine effectiveness against current and emerging COVID-19 variants within the NSW population.
“Utilising a network of top immunology experts, diagnostic scientists and clinicians, the ongoing funding is supporting a statewide approach to studying and developing vaccines,” explains Professor Tony Cunningham, Director of the Centre for Virus Research at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research. “The NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group brings together significant expertise across the vaccine discovery and development pipeline and is supporting further collaborative activities and industry engagement around COVID-19 vaccines,” says Cunningham, who is also a Vaccine Theme Leader in the University of Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases and a Leadership Fellow for the National Health and Medical Research Council. “NSW Health support for several ongoing research projects of the Group, has already resulted in impactful publications and provided advice to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.”
Bivalent vaccines trigger broader immune response
“Our first paper showed that over time, the body’s immune responses to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were capable of broadening to cope with subsequent waves of infection,” says Cunningham. “The second paper, soon to be published in Lancet eBioMedicine, has looked at the comparison between the newer bivalent vaccines when directed against the originally identified COVID-19 strain and subsequent strains, such as Omicron variants. This study confirmed that the bivalent vaccine can give somewhat broader immunity due to the response of memory B cells to the bivalent vaccine.” Memory B cells are a type of lymphocyte – which is an immune cell originally made in bone marrow and found in the bloodstream and mostly in lymph glands. They are involved in the body’s adaptive immune response and provide ‘memory’ by producing appropriate antibodies when a new infection occurs.
Ongoing research by the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group is being used to help develop a vaccine with increased durability, so that the coverage lasts longer. “We also want to improve vaccine breadth of activity so it protects against different strains,” Cunningham points out. “A harder target, to which we will contribute, is to develop a vaccine that can inhibit the spread of the COVID-19 virus in addition to reducing severity of symptoms.”
Immunity secrets of bloodbank samples
Research by the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Collaborative Research Group is utilising two biobanks formed between 2021 and 2023 to store blood samples from people representative of the NSW population. Around 500 participants contributed samples via Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Westmead Hospital. Their blood was taken before and after the participants were immunised and as they continued to have further COVID-19 boosters within the two-year follow-up. Throughout that period some of those donors also developed breakthrough COVID-19 infections.
“These blood samples have provided a goldmine of information that is helping us to explore how long immunity lasts after COVID-19 vaccines and boosters,” Cunningham says. “We are using them to investigate why antibody response declines, related also to factors such as age and sex. This will enable us to better understand how long COVID-19 protection lasts between the boosters, what effect the boosters have, what the impact of breakthrough COVID-19 infections is on immunity and why those breakthroughs occur. This information will guide improvement of booster vaccines to help make them more efficient and long-lasting. The biobank samples are also being used by other researchers as baseline immune responses for understanding other aspects of COVID-19.”
Addressing covid challenges
“The protective antibodies stimulated by COVID-19 vaccines are directed at a certain protein on the surface of the virus but the virus is able to change the shape of that protein,” Cunningham explains. To learn how to more effectively address these changes, the NSW Vaccine, Infection and Immunology Research Group is looking at antibodies and the whole immune system, which has multiple responses that interact with each other. A major aim is to try to reduce the number of COVID-19 boosters people need for protection.
“The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been an extraordinary success story,” says Cunningham. “In 2020, they probably saved 20 million lives globally. They’re extraordinarily effective in all age groups, including the ageing. The main ongoing challenge with the vaccines is that the virus keeps changing and our antibodies decline.”