claimed on Tuesday that researchers led by Raghavan Varadarajan, Professor at IISc's Molecular Biophysics Unit, are working towards developing effective
strategies against two viruses: SARS-CoV-2 and HIV.
In two studies published in the past week, they reported the design of a 'heat-tolerant' Covid-19 vaccine candidate and a rapid method to identify specific regions on the HIV envelopeprotein that are targeted by antibodies, which can help design effective vaccines, an IISc press release said.
The studies were published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences respectively, according to Bengaluru-based IISc.
The Covid-19 vaccine candidate contains a part of the spike protein of the novel coronavirus called the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) - the region that helps the virus stick to the hosts cell.
It is being developed by Varadarajans lab in collaboration with Mynvax, a startup co-founded by him and incubated at IISc, as well as several other institutes.
"When tested in guinea pig models, the vaccine candidate triggered a strong immune response", the statement said.
"Surprisingly, it also remained stable for a month at 37C, and freeze-dried versions could tolerate temperatures as high as 100C.
Such 'warm' vaccines can be stored and transported without expensive cooling equipment to remote areas for mass vaccination - most vaccines need to be stored between 2-8C or even cooler temperatures to avoid losing their potency",
