Revolutionary Needle-Free Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine: Study - Video

A recent paper published in Nature Communications reveals the efficacy of delivering a COVID-19 vaccine via the nasal passages.

These vaccines are live attenuated intranasal vaccines, called CDO-7N-1 which are delivered through intranasal passages that induce robust mucosal and systemic neutralizing antibody and T-cell subset responses when tested in mice which were triggered by a single immunization.

The virus that causes COVID-19, known as SARS-CoV-2, has led to more than 700 million infections and 7 million deaths around the world so far. It still poses a serious threat to vulnerable people.

Most current vaccines are made to target the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, specifically the part of this protein that most antibodies attack. These vaccines worked well against earlier virus variants like alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. However, their effectiveness in preventing symptoms has dropped significantly with the arrival of new variants that have changes in the spike protein.

Live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs) have several key benefits compared to other types of vaccines. They produce strong and lasting immune responses, often with just one dose. Because live-attenuated vaccines contain the entire virus, they trigger a broad immune response, unlike vaccines that use only a single antigen (such as the spike protein) which targets a narrower range.

The vaccine has been licensed to Indian Immunologicals Ltd, a major vaccine manufacturer.

Reference: Liu, X., Ng, W.H., Zusinaite, E. et al. A single-dose intranasal live-attenuated codon deoptimized vaccine provides broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Nat Commun 15, 7225 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51535-y