Russia's Medical Biological Agency Is Working On COVID-19 Vaccine Providing Cell Immunity

Russia's Medical Biological Agency Is Working on COVID-19 Vaccine Providing Cell Immunity

Russia's Federal Medical Biological Agency is working on a coronavirus vaccine that provides cell-bound immunity, since this type of immunity can protect a person for up to 17 years, Veronika Skvortsova, the head of the agency, told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2021) Russia's Federal Medical Biological Agency is working on a coronavirus vaccine that provides cell-bound immunity, since this type of immunity can protect a person for up to 17 years, Veronika Skvortsova, the head of the agency, told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

"[We are developing] a new technological platform for the creation of vaccines against COVID of the next generation. If the accumulated mutation in the S-protein of the receptor domain will not allow the binding of antibodies due to the variability of the virus, we are developing a vaccine that affects not the S-protein, but other protein components of the virus and enables the development of not humoral immunity, which is formed through activation of antibodies, but the development of cellular immunity, cytotoxic immunity, which is more durable, " Skvortsova said.

"Antibody immunity usually lasts for months, while cellular immunity lasts for years, and certain experiments have even confirmed the preservation of this immunity for up to 13-17 years," the Federal Medical�Biological Agency chief added.

Skvortsova expressed hope that clinical trials of the vaccine would start in July.