A Universal Vaccine to Prevent Pandemics
When we become infected with a harmful bacterium or virus our immune system responds with an immediate “innate immune response”. Most of the time the infection is cured without any symptoms. However, sometimes the infection is severe and persistent and the immune system then responds with a stronger “adaptive immune response” characterized by the production of “protective antibodies”.
Problem
All the vaccines used today are made to stimulate the “adaptive immune response”. These vaccines contain viral proteins (or mRNA that codes for viral proteins) and after receiving the vaccine the person develops an adaptive immune response against the virus. All the vaccines being developed today however, will be ineffective against the next pandemic caused by a new unknown virus. Because to prepare the vaccine you need a viral antigen prepared from the unknown virus. And as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown it will take a year to prepare and test the new vaccine. And while we wait for the vaccine the next pandemic will have killed millions of people.
Solution
UNIVAXX has taken a different approach. UNIVAXX is developing a vaccine based on stimulating the “innate immune response”. The vaccine contains immunostimulatory compounds that mimic viral RNA and DNA and stimulates the innate immune response to produce a potent antiviral protein called “interferon”. Interferon is effective in protecting against infection with all types of viruses, including the unknown pandemic viruses. The vaccine can be prepared beforehand and used to vaccinate individuals during the initial viral outbreak. Timely vaccination could prevent the viral outbreak from spreading and becoming a pandemic.