Spanish researchers work on Coronavirus vaccination

A team from the Farming and Food Technology and Research Institute's Animal Health Research Centre (IRTA-CReSA) in Bellaterra (Barcelona province) – part of Catalunya's regional agricultural ministry – is attempting to recreate the deadly virus that originated in Wuhan, China to test the new vaccine.

Once this process is complete, they will try it out using animal modelling, according to Dr Júlia Vergara, a vet working with the Institute.

The next stage will be seeking funding.

“With our colleagues from Texas and also from The Netherlands, we are trying to access both EU and USA lines of finance,” Dr Vergara explains.

At present, the researchers cannot give details of the exact figure they will need.

Laboratory work is 'much more costly' because safety procedures need to be watertight – 'biosecurity level III', according to the team – meaning extreme standards of protection for the workers so they do not catch the virus whilst working with it.

They also now need to work out which models of animals to test the vaccine on, since 'mice and rats are not the same as pigs or other species earmarked as possible reserves'.

If funding is obtained quickly, an 'experimental vaccine' could be produced within a matter of months, although it will take longer for it to appear on the mainstream market due to the need for quality conditions to be signed off, and clinical trials to be carried out.

The whole process could take an absolute minimum of six months, according to Dr Adolfo García Sastre, a Spaniard based at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital.

“These vaccinations are going to be developed in different parts of the world, and the experimental ones may well be ready in a month and a half to two months.

“But we'll need another four months to find out whether they work on humans.”

Dr García Sastre met with Spain's minister of science, former astronaut Pedro Duque, and with Dr Luis Enjuanes of the Coronavirus laboratory at Spain's National Biotechnology Centre (CNB), this week.

They discussed how the CNB would be working with the Mount Sinai to create a vaccine against a contagious condition that has led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare an international state of emergency.

Duque pledged to drum up additional resources for the CNB so it can take on more staff and buy the necessary equipment.

The CNB has over 35 years of experience with these types of virus – in fact, it was the first research institute worldwide to create an effective clone, in the year 2000, through genetic engineering, so it could identify the genes involved in resistance and vulnerability to virus.

“Dr Luis Enjuanes' group, with whom we are working on one of the European Coronavirus projects, has even more years of experience than we do in this area,” says Dr Júlia Vergara.

“The fact that the Coronavirus is part of the same family as SARS and MERS is helping us to work more quickly.”

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) first appeared in 2003 and ended up being successfully eradicated, whilst Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was initially identified in 2012 and was able to be contained within Saudi Arabia.

For both, effective vaccinations were created, but they never reached the mainstream market, although the new strain – known scientifically as the 2019-nCoV – is likely to need wider availability of a vaccine.

The photograph, by the IRTA-CReSA, shows some of the researchers working on the vaccine.