May 4, 2021 -- Vaxart said that new phase I clinical trial data demonstrate that its VXA-CoV2-1 oral COVID-19 tablet vaccine yields broad cross-coronavirus activity.
The vaccine showed substantial CD8+ T-cell responses, as measured by interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha induction, according to the company. What's more, a comparative experiment conducted by Vaxart found that volunteers who had received the Moderna or Pfizer messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines had fewer T-cell responses than those who were given the VXA-CoV2-1 vaccine, Vaxart said.
The firm noted that the vaccine candidate also triggered specific mucosal immunoglobulin A antibodies that appeared to be cross-reactive against other coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and the endemic common cold viruses 229E, NL63, HKU1, and OC43. It also includes both the spike and nucleocapsid SARS-CoV-2 proteins.