Despite the fact that there is still no cure for the coronavirus and some estimate that it could take up to a year for one to be approved, an Israeli institute said it could have the solution in about 90 days.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) is considered a mutation of a virus that appeared in December 2019 in Wuhan, China.
More than 1,200 cases have been reported in the US so far, including celebrities such as actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita, who tested positive in Australia on Wednesday.
In a fight to attack the problem, the Migal Research Institute in the Galilee this week announced the development of a coronavirus vaccine, according to Israeli Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis.
The group of researchers began their work developing a bird flu vaccine, which is now used by default with every bird that is born in Israel as well as in many other countries.
As soon as information about the COVID-19 mutation began to spread, the investigators assured that they already had a lot of land gained.
"Our basic goal was to develop general technology and not specifically a vaccine for this or that type of virus," said Dr. Chen Katz, head of the biotechnology department at the Migal Institute.
"The scientific framework of the vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector, which creates and secretes a soluble chimeric protein that delivers the viral antibody to mucosal tissues by self-activated endocytosis, causing the body to form antibodies against virus".
In preclinical trials, the team demonstrated that oral vaccination induces high levels of specific antibodies against the avian virus, Katz said.
After scientists sequenced the DNA of the new coronavirus causing the current global outbreak, the Migal researchers agreed that the poultry coronavirus has a strong genetic similarity to the human variant, in addition to using the same mechanism of infection, which increases the likelihood of getting an effective human vaccine in a very short period of time, said David Zigdon, laboratory manager.
"All we have to do is adjust the system to the new sequence," Katz reported. "We are in the middle of this process and hopefully in a short time we will have the vaccine in our hands."
Once the vaccine is developed, it has to go through a regulatory process, which includes clinical trials and large-scale production.
It will be an oral vaccine, which will make it particularly accessible to the general public, Zigdon said.
"We are currently in intense discussions with potential partners who can help speed up the human testing phase and speed up completion of final product development and regulatory activities," he added.
