Scientists at Oxford University say their experimental coronavirus vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot. A research was published on July 20, 2020 in the Lancet medical journal.
Basic Facts
The vaccine has been jointly developed by the Oxford University and British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc .
Researchers first began testing the vaccine in April 2020 in 1077 people, half of whom got the experimental vaccine.
Scientists found that their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a dual immune response in people aged 18 to 55 that lasted at least two months after they were immunised.
The vaccine is made from a genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees.
It has been heavily modified, first so it cannot cause infections in people and also to make it “look” more like coronavirus.
Scientists did this by transferring the genetic instructions for the coronavirus’s “spike protein” – the crucial tool it uses to invade our cells – to the vaccine they were developing.
(Source: BBC and The Hindu)
