A Molecular Virology laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro is working on a vaccine intended exclusively for the delta and gamma variants of covid
The new variants of the coronavirus and its rapid spread have forced several scientists to look for an exclusive vaccine for each disease and not make use of the anticovid ones or wait for them to fight the mutation of the virus.
A vaccine specifically designed for the covid variants that circulate in Latin America, such as gamma and delta, is one of the main projects of the Molecular Virology Laboratory (LVM) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), one one of the most modern in Brazil.
The vaccine, which is being developed in the laboratory using genetic engineering technologies and strict security measures, as Efe was able to verify, follows the same strategy currently adopted by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer or Moderna, which use messenger RNA.
However, the new immunizer will be used for country-specific variants that are already circulating in Latin America, such as the P1 -Brazilian variant, better known as gamma- and delta.
Although the delta was identified for the first time in India, "it assumed other mutations in Brazil" and that is why we are working with those variants that are already in the country, explained to Efe the virologist and doctor in genetics Amilcar Tanuri, coordinator of the LVM .
The vaccine, however, still has a "way to go", because, according to the expert, it is in the preclinical phase, that is, it is still tested in the laboratory without having been examined in animals or humans.
With the advanced technology of its equipment, this laboratory also studies the immune response to covid and analyzes new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus through genetic sequencing studies.
Since the covid arrived in Brazil in February 2020, the laboratory has been dedicated to the fight against the pandemic, but there are also lines of research related to dengue, Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and, mainly, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
In addition to the development of the antigen, the laboratory also performs immune response studies against covid-19 and the production of antibodies against the virus, something that is not only analyzed with infected patients, but with people who have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
"It is a very complete study" in which even the loss of antibodies after the vaccine is analyzed, "said Tanuri.
STUDY OF VARIANTS
Another line of research is that of the variants of the covid-19 virus in Rio, where every week the experts analyze about 200 samples.
"The samples are purified and prepared for large-scale genetic sequencing. From their arrival to the final result it takes about five days," André Felipe Andrade dos Santos, professor of the Department of Genetics at UFRJ and coordinator of the Laboratory of Diversity and Viral Diseases, one of the arms of the LMV.
Experts have identified that the variant that currently circulates the most in Rio de Janeiro is the delta.
This variant, which is already present in 135 countries around the world, is responsible for almost 60% of all covid infections in the state of Rio de Janeiro and 72% of new infections in its homonymous capital.
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