Immune science

A paper now published in Mucosal Immunology examines whether mRNA vaccines induce antibodies in saliva.

In a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, CITF-funded researcher Dr. Marc-André Langlois from the University of Ottawa and colleagues found that half of those residing in a household in which someone became infected with SARS-CoV-2 became infected as well.

While two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine can prevent serious illness in most cases, vaccine-induced immune responses decline naturally over time, increasing the risk of breakthrough infections.

Researchers, including Dr. Ryan Troyer from the University of Western Ontario, who is funded by the CITF, are developing a new vaccine that uses a harmless virus-based delivery vehicle.

The exact mechanisms of immune protection to SARS-CoV-2 are still unclear and researchers around the world continue to attempt to address this critical question.

A team led by CITF-funded researcher Dr. Jun Liu at the University of Toronto have demonstrated that a novel intranasal COVID-19 vaccine product can induce robust mucosal and systemic immune responses in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In a CITF-funded study originally released as a preprint and now published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Drs. Mark Brockman and Zabrina Brumme from Simon Fraser University and Dr. Marc Romney from the University of British Columbia examined immune responses following COVID-19 vaccination in over 150 adults aged 24-98 years.

CITF-funded researchers Drs. Daniel Kaufmann, Andrés Finzi and Nicolas Chomont from the Université de Montréal and the Université de Montréal hospital research centre (CRCHUM), along with their collaborators, found that the amount of viral mRNA  in the blood can help identify hospitalized patients who will suffer severe COVID-19, and even death.

Nearly everyone has been exposed to the highly prevalent seasonal coronaviruses responsible for the common cold. But could this exposure induce antibodies that also recognize certain proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus?

CITF-funded researchers Drs. Götz Ehrhardt and Mario Ostrowski from the University of Toronto set out to determine whether their pediatric tissue samples from 2015-16 contained signs of immunity to SARS-CoV-2.