AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 Experimental Vaccine Triggers Similar Protective Antibodies and T-Cells in Both Older and Younger Adults

Early trial results of AstraZeneca Plc’s (Cambridgeshire, England) COVID-19 vaccine candidate suggest that the group most vulnerable to serious illness and death could build immunity as the vaccine has been found to trigger protective antibodies and T-cells in older age groups.

AstraZeneca is conducting trials of its adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222, developed by the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK). According to a report by The Financial Times, the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 experimental vaccine triggered protective antibodies and T-cells in older age groups, providing much encouragement to researchers who have been searching for proof of the vaccine’s ability to protect these groups from serious illness or death from the SARS-Cov-2 virus.

Age is now considered as the primary risk factor for COVID-19 severity as the immune system weakens with age. This has raised concerns that a COVID-19 vaccine may fail to protect the very group that generates the least effective response to the SARS-Cov-2 virus. However, early results from immunogenicity blood tests performed on a subset of older participants from trials of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 experimental vaccine have shown that the vaccine also triggered protective antibodies and T-cells in older age groups. These results match data released in July that showed the vaccine generated “robust immune responses” in a group of healthy adults aged between 18 and 55 years, according to The Financial Times. The earlier data had shown that the vaccine induced both antibodies as well as T-cells for at least 56 days.

Researchers are encouraged by the latest development, although positive immunogenicity tests do not guarantee that a COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for older people which can be confirmed only after full trial data for the age group has been analyzed.

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