National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Archives

NIH starts evaluating second COVID-19 booster shots in adults

[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]

The NIH recently announced that it has started enrolling adults for a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating various additional COVID-19 booster shots.

NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is sponsoring the COVID-19 Variant Immunologic Landscape (COVAIL) trial.

“We are looking beyond the Omicron variant to determine the best strategy to protect against future variants,” NIAID Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci said in a March 31 news release. “This trial will help us understand if we can use prototype and variant vaccines alone or together to shift immune responses to cover existing and emerging COVID-19 variants.”

The COVAIL trial will study immune responses induced by prototype vaccines and variant vaccine candidates — including bivalent vaccines, which target two SARS-CoV-2 variants. The goal is to inform future booste…

NIH to launch clinical trial of three mRNA HIV vaccines

HIV virus image courtesy of NIAID

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has announced a Phase 1 clinical study of HIV vaccines using mRNA sequences.

The study will test the safety and immunogenicity of three investigational HIV mRNA vaccines known as BG505 MD39.3 mRNA, BG505 MD39.3 gp151 mRNA and BG505 MD39.3 gp151 CD4KO mRNA.

The three HIV vaccine candidates were developed by scientists at the Scripps Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) Neutralizing Antibody Center at Scripps.

NIAID is a division within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) manufactured the vaccines for the HVTN 302 trial with an NIAID-backed contract.

Similar to mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, each of the HIV vaccine candidates will be based on the spike protein found on the surface of the vir…

NIH to study third dose of COVID-19 vaccine in people with autoimmune disease

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched a study to gauge the antibody response of a third dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in patients with autoimmune disease. Participants in the study had an insufficient immune response to the primary series of vaccination.

The Phase 2 study will also test the impact of pausing immunosuppressive medication to determine if it improves the antibody response.

The study, titled “COVID‐19 booster vaccine in autoimmune disease non‐responders,” will test an additional dose of vaccines from both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an NIH division, is sponsoring the study.

The study will first focus on people with one of the following autoimmune diseases: multiple sclerosis, pemphigus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or systemic sclerosis.

On Aug. 12, FDA authorized an additional dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 va…