Researchers seek to repurpose an existing manufacturing platform to produce a COVID-19 vaccine

https://www.thestreet.com/phildavis/news/researchers-seek-to-repurpose-an-existing-manufacturing-platform

We are both biotechnology researchers and are currently seeking to repurpose an existing medical manufacturing platform to quickly develop a vaccine candidate for COVID-19.

This process is used for the treatment of blood products such as plasma, platelets and whole blood to prevent disease transmission when people receive transfused blood. It utilizes a common food ingredient, vitamin B2, or riboflavin, which is a light-sensitive chemical. When used in combination with ultraviolet light of specific wavelengths, B2 can alter genetic material, whether RNA or DNA, of infectious pathogens in the blood, making them unable to transmit disease.

Those genetic changes prevent pathogens, such as viral, bacterial and parasitic contaminants, in blood from replicating. By stopping the replication process, the method protects people from disease they could acquire through a blood transfusion.

Here’s how we believe this technology can be applied to COVID-19 virus: When creating a vaccine candidate, the goal is to destroy the replication potential of the virus while preserving its proteins and antigens, the substances in the virus that prompt the body to produce antibodies. The presence of those proteins and antigens allows the body to recognize the virus as foreign and mount an immune response against it.

When this method is applied to a pure virus grown in cell culture, the B2 damages the virus’s genetic material and thus blocks it from replicating. But the B2 treatment leaves the rest of the virus – notably the viral proteins – undamaged. That is important because the vaccine needs to contain proteins that appear on an infecting virus in order for a person to produce effective antibodies and protect against the disease.

BOOM!