University of Hyderabad faculty claims developing potential vaccine for coronavirus
A faculty member of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) has claimed to have designed what can be a potential vaccine against the coronavirus, called T-cell epitopes. To be studied in vitro for conclusive evidence, the research has been shared with the scientific community, the university has stated in a press release.
Seema Mishra of the Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, has created small coronaviral peptides or molecules used by cells to trigger an immune response to destroy infected cells, the university has stated further.
The university claims these potential vaccines are designed to not destroy human cells or proteins, while acting as an immune response against the virus. However, these results have to be investigated experimentally in order to provide conclusive evidence.
These are the first such studies on the nCoV vaccine design from India exploring the whole coronaviral proteome across structural and non-structural proteins that make up the virus, claims the university.
“Right now, the best defence to prevent further nCoV infections is social distancing. Vaccination will take some time due to the need for further work on these candidate epitopes. We are hopeful that our computational findings will provide a cost and time-effective framework for rapid experimental trials towards an effective nCoV vaccine,” the university said the statement.
Meanwhile, IIT Guwahati is also working to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus pandemic as well as rapid detection and portable diagnostic kits for various viruses and microorganisms. The institute informed that the researchers there are exploring possibilities to “clone the immunogenic proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to be used as diagnostics and possible vaccine candidates”.
INDIAN EXPRESS
