Currently, a Ukrainian vaccine against coronavirus is being tested on mice in Gdansk (Poland), Radio Liberty has reported.
“The Ukrainian yeast vaccine against COVID-19, developed by scientists at the Institute of Cell Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv, is being tested on mice for immunogenicity at the Polish Institute in Gdansk. Research is still to be done on transgenic mice in Krakow,” the ezine said.
It is noted that in September last year, the Institute of Cell Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv received a grant of about Hr 10 million to develop a vaccine against coronavirus infection. Lviv biologists have created yeast-based producers of viral proteins. The project, designed for a year and a half, is nearing completion. Research is carried out in Poland, because there are no corresponding laboratories in Ukraine.
“This vaccine is a protein or several proteins of the coronavirus, primarily the ‘spike’ protein. The most important thing is that there is a receptor, and a site that this virus grabs onto the receptor of human cells in the alveoli of the lungs. But, in addition, we still synthesize on special yeast, humanized, modifying proteins, and other proteins of the coronavirus. This mixture will act more effectively, causing the appearance of antibodies,” the media quoted head of the Institute of Cell Biology in Lviv, Andriy Sybirny, as saying.
At the same time, the academician added that the result would be known in two to three weeks, after which the tests will be carried out on transgenic mice vulnerable to the human coronavirus.
Earlier, Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Doctor Viktor Liashko said that the Ukrainian research fund financed on a competitive basis the development of two vaccines for COVID-19, the third development is financed by the business. The deputy minister specified that the fund finances the development of the Institute of Cell Biology in Lviv, which is headed by Academician Andriy Sybirny. The second vaccine, according to Liashko, is being developed at the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, which is headed by Academician Serhiy Komisarenko. The third vaccine was developed Mykhailo Favorov and the Diaproph-Med company, which is not funded by the state.
