Washington: Moderna’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine worked well in monkeys and prevented the virus from replicating in their noses and lungs, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the Moderna study, three groups of eight rhesus monkeys received either the vaccine or a placebo at two different dosages.
All those who were given the vaccine developed high levels of antibodies to attack parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Scientists said monkeys that got the vaccine even at the lower dosage produced more antibodies than people who had recovered from the virus, and that it appeared to stimulate an immune response from so-called T-cells.
The study also found that two days after the vaccinated monkeys were exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 through the nose and directly to the lungs, no replicating virus was found in the lungs of seven of the eight animals regardless of dosage while those that had been given the placebo all still had the virus.
None of the animals given the higher dose of the vaccine had detectable levels of the virus following their exposure.
“This is the first time an experimental COVID-19 vaccine tested in non-human primates has been shown to produce such rapid viral control in the upper airway,” said the National Institutes of Health, which is co-developing the vaccine.
