Virologist Luis Enjuanes reveals what the Spanish vaccine will be like: “Sterilizing and with a stronger immune response”

The prestigious CSIC virologist and father of what will be the Spanish vaccine against COVID-19, Luis Enjuanes, has given details of how his coronavirus vaccine is progressing in an interview on Antena 3.

It is a more complex vaccine than others and it has certain advantages over existing ones. The Spanish vaccine “amplifies the dose that we administer, multiplies it,” says the expert. And adds: “can multiply it up to 1,000 times”, making the immune response stronger. In addition, compared to other vaccines that only contain the protein of the spikes, the ‘S’ already known throughout the world, includes other proteins such as M, N, What are they essential for the induction of cellular immunity, the so-called T lymphocytes”.

Another advantage that Enjuanes highlights isa route of administration: through the nose. “It is a respiratory virus that enters us through the respiratory tract and to induce immunity in that area, the best thing is to express the antigen there as we have done,” something that he confesses has some inconveniences for the agencies that regulate the administration of the drug, so who also work in a traditional administration, with a prick.

A vaccine that amplifies the dose that we administer, multiplies it

“We work on both versions, although everyone knows that what is truly effective for infections in respiratory mucosa is to administer the antigen in the mucosa itself because this immunity is compartmentalized, which means that it is induced in the mucosa in which it is presents the antigen, in the others it does not”, defends Enjuanes.

Sterilizing and single dose

In the mice that we used as an experimental model we give only one dose and this is enough for what we call a sterilizing immunity, explains the virologist on Antena 3. “That means that if the little mouse is attacked again later because we administer a super-lethal dose of 100,000 infective units, we do not find the virus anywhere. This is because, as it was immunized, the door rejects it input,” he adds.

It has already been tested in humanized transgenic mice and the results have been positive. Now performance must be improved so that the costs of the vaccine are more affordable and ensure success by giving sufficiently high doses.