Once blamed for COVID-19, China’s Wuhan lab invents nasal vaccine against ‘future pandemics’. Here's what we know

For many, COVID-19 seems like a thing of the past. While lockdowns and social isolation become a bitter memory and people resume their normal lives, the threat of the disease that could turn into the next pandemic looms large.

We might have forgotten about it, but COVID-19 has not been entirely wiped out and its new variants keep emerging in different parts of the world. Now, researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) say they have developed a new nanovaccine that could protect against all major COVID-19 variants, according to a South China Morning Post (SCMP) report.

The Wuhan Institute has been a subject of controversy over accusations that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a lab leak at its facilities.

Let’s take a closer look.

Wuhan Institute’s nasal COVID vaccine

The WIV’s researchers have developed a nasal COVID-19 vaccine to fight “future pandemics”.

As per SCMP, researchers combined coronavirus epitopes – parts of antigens that elicit the immune response – with the blood protein ferritin. The team found that this combination makes intranasal nanoparticle vaccine that could offer protection against several variants of Sars-CoV-2 such as Delta, Omicron and the WIV04.

The WIV04 strain is an early variant detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

This nanoparticle vaccine could also provide long-lasting and wide protection against other types of coronavirus, reported SCMP.

Researchers have raised the alarm that constant mutation of the coronavirus will keep resulting in the cropping up of new mutant strains, some of which may even trigger future outbreaks and cause another global pandemic.

“The ongoing and future pandemics caused by Sars-CoV-2 variants and mutations underscore the need for effective vaccines that provide broad-spectrum protection,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal ACS Nano in June.

“Our constructed nanovaccine targeting the conserved epitopes of the pre-existing neutralising antibodies can serve as a promising candidate for a universal Sars-CoV-2 vaccine.”

The nanovaccine was tested on mice. After the first dose, two boosters were administered within 42 days. These vaccinated mice showed higher levels of the antibody Immunoglobulin G, which lasted even after six months.

The nanoparticle vaccine “has the potential protective capability as a broad spectrum vaccine against various [coronaviruses]”, researchers wrote, as per SCMP.

Wuhan Institute’s COVID ‘lab leak’ row

During the early days of the pandemic, the controversial claim that the coronavirus may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan – where COVID-19 was first reported – started gaining foothold.

Those who support the claim point to the existence of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the city, which has been engaged in research on coronaviruses in bats for years.

As per BBC, the institute is just a 40-minute drive from the Huanan wet market, where the first cluster of cases were detected. The supporters of the theory claim the virus could have escaped, accidentally or intentionally, from the WIV lab and transmitted to the wet market.

Whether COVID-19 spread from animals to humans or the pandemic was a result of a lab leak remains a mystery. Last June, the US released an intelligence report that rebuffed some points of the COVID-19 lab leak theory. It also found no direct evidence to prove that COVID-19 broke out from the Chinese lab.

While four US agencies believe the virus transferred from animals to humans, two agencies gave weightage to the lab leak theory. Most American spy agencies agree the virus was not genetically engineered or “laboratory-adapted”, reported BBC. 

In 2021, a joint investigation by China and the World Health Organization (WHO) found the lab leak theory “extremely unlikely”. However, the United Nations health agency faced scrutiny over the report, with experts raising questions about the findings.

The lab leak theory has further strained relations between the US and China, which rejects the claim. China’s foreign ministry has accused US intelligence agencies of politicising the probe into the origins of the virus.

As per an Associated Press report, the Chinese government had hampered initial efforts to trace the origins of the pandemic. This continues even today as foreign scientists have been forced out of the country and Chinese researchers are banned from leaving.

However, China defends its handling of the research on the origins of the pandemic. The National Health Commission, China’s top medical authority, told AP that the Asian nation has “invested huge manpower, material and financial resources” and “has not stopped looking for the origins of the coronavirus.”

Will we ever know how COVID-19 emerged, or will it continue to be a great mystery? Only time has the answer.

With inputs from agencies