COVID research updates: A front-runner vaccine shows promise in older people
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00502-w
30 September β A front-runner vaccine shows promise in older people
Older people injected with one of the most prominent candidate vaccines for COVID-19 developed high levels of antibodies against the new coronavirus.
Evan Anderson at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, and his colleagues studied the response of 40 people aged 56 and above to the vaccine developed by biotechnology firm Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (E. J. Anderson et al. N. Engl. J. Med.
https://doi.org/fbxj; 2020). The vaccine consists of a piece of RNA that encodes a modified version of a SARS-CoV-2 protein.
Participants developed several types of antibodies β immune molecules that fight infection β including neutralizing antibodies, which can disarm an invading microbe. After receiving a second dose of the vaccine, participants had antibody levels similar to those of control-group participants who had recovered from COVID-19. Any side effects were generally mild to moderate.