INTERVIEW WITH LUIS ENJUANES: Our vaccine is much safer, more powerful and more complex than others – La Plaza de Sanse

Virologist Luis Enjuanes will be in our city next Wednesday, October 9, at 18:00, to give a talk at the Rosa Luxemburgo Municipal Services Center (Calle Federico García Lorca, s/n).

At 78 years old, Luis Enjuanes (Valencia, 1945) leads the coronavirus research group at the CNB-CSIC, where he has carried out his research work for 37 years. He is a research professor at the Supreme Council of Scientific Research (CSIC), director of the coronavirus laboratory at the National Center of Biotechnology in Madrid and is developing a Spanish vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

You and your team are currently developing a Spanish COVID vaccine, is that correct?
The first vaccine we developed against coronavirus was against MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), which became popular in 2012 and was listed by WHO as one of the 10 most dangerous viruses in the world due to its high mortality rate. In 2002, SARS COV-2 appeared, which has spread massively since 2019 and has already killed 7 million people. For this virus, known to everyone as COVID, we also made a vaccine, which we are now improving.

What is the current situation with the development of COVID vaccines in the world?
The virus changes so much from year to year, so the vaccine that was optimal last year now needs to be updated. Typically, every year, WHO analyzes the evolution of viruses and selects the most modern vaccine, which will be produced for this campaign. If vaccines are not changed every year, effectiveness will decrease dramatically.

Does this mean that if we don’t continue to get the COVID vaccine every year, we could be at risk of another pandemic?
No, probably just like a pandemic, no, but there will be a lot of people who get infected. This is because current vaccines typically express only one antigen, a protein that confers protection, and if this changes, the vaccine will no longer work. The vaccine we are developing contains 5 different proteins and provides greater protection.

What function could the vaccine your team is developing now that so many people have been vaccinated? What would she improve? Why does it take longer than others?
Our vaccine is newly developed and uses a new method. It expresses more than 5 antigens, so its defense is more universal, meaning that even if the virus changes, it can continue to neutralize it. We have also demonstrated that our vaccine is sterilizing, meaning that the immunity it induces results in the complete disappearance of the virus within the infected body.

Additionally, this vaccine is self-multiplying, meaning that one dose is given and it replicates within the cell a thousand times larger, providing greater protection. Our vaccine is also safer because it does not spread to the next cell, does not leave the cell, and therefore cannot become virulent.

Another novelty of our vaccine is that it is administered through the respiratory route. This is very important because SARS COV-2 is a respiratory virus that enters the lungs, and to combat it, it is necessary to immunize the respiratory tract through which the virus will pass.
In short, our vaccine is much safer, more complex and more powerful, but for all these reasons it is significantly delayed.

When do you estimate that this vaccine will hit the market?
These are big words in the market, but with a little luck they could be evaluated in public next year.

Ideology, politics and vaccination have been mixed up in recent years, what do you think about it?
There are and will always be opposing points of view. I know from a scientific point of view what vaccines have achieved in the world, but still there are people who think that it is harmful for people to get vaccinated. Most of the scientific establishment does not share this position, but personally I believe that there is no need to fight about this and try to provide scientific information and a lot of dialogue.

Place Sansay