Vaccine test error helped scientists understand how best to get vaccinated against COVID-19

During an AstraZeneca vaccine trial last year, more than 1,000 participants accidentally received half the drug

during the first vaccination.However, by the end of the trial, it appeared that these patients potentially received better protection from the virus than those who received two standard doses. It quickly became clear that the half-dose protocol was in fact a mistake and not a deliberate plan.

In a new study, Northwestern Medicine experts repeated the protocol and showed that some vaccines are more effective when the first dose is much lower than the second.

To investigate this issue, researchersstudied the immune responses in mice to two different COVID-19 vaccines, CanSino and Sputnik V. Both are vaccines against adenovirus serotype 5, using the same viral vector as AstraZeneca.

The study reports that primary lowthe dose followed by a higher dose increase elicited a significantly better immune response in mice, both qualitatively and quantitatively, compared to the two high doses. The researchers also saw similar benefits of low / high doses of an experimental HIV vaccine that uses the same adenoviral vector as COVID-19 vaccines. This indicates that the low / high dose protocol may be useful with other vaccines.

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