Not sure if anyone has seen or posted this so apologies if it...

Not sure if anyone has seen or posted this so apologies if it has already been posted.

An article out of the The Telegraph London". in regards to Vaccine. I received it as an article not a link.

London | Oxford scientists believe they have made a breakthrough in their quest for a COVID-19 vaccine after discovering that the jab triggers a response that may offer a "double defence" against the virus.

Phase 1 human trials of the world-leading Oxford vaccine have shown that it generates an immune response against the disease, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Blood samples taken from a group of UK volunteers given a dose of the vaccine showed that it stimulated the body to produce both antibodies and "killer T-cells", a senior source said.

The discovery is promising because separate studies have suggested that antibodies may fade away within months, while T-cells can stay in circulation for years.

However, the source cautioned that the results, while "extremely promising", did not yet prove that the Oxford vaccine provided long-lasting immunity against COVID-19.

"I can tell you that we now know the Oxford vaccine covers both bases – it produces both a T-cell and an antibody response," the senior source told The Telegraph. "It's the combination of these two that will hopefully keep people safe. So far, so good. It's an important moment. But we still have a long way to go."

Another source close to the team described the presence of both antibodies and T-cells as a potential "double defence" against COVID-19. The full findings will be published in The Lancet medical journal on Monday, it was confirmed last night. The findings are based on initial results from a Phase 1 clinical trial, which began in Oxford in April when doses of the vaccine were given to 500 volunteers.

A trial is currently under way involving 5000 volunteers in Brazil to prove the vaccine is effective, while the drugmaker AstraZeneca has signed a deal to produce up to 2 billion doses.

If all goes well, the researchers, led by Professor Sarah Gilbert, hope the vaccine may be ready as early as October.

The initial data also suggest that the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine is safewith no major side effects, it is understood, although further work will beneeded. The team is also evaluating the level of dose needed to produce aneffective response.

Stocks soared yesterday after reports that positive news on the Oxfordvaccine would be released next week. Shares in AstraZeneca jumped 5.2 per cent.

David Carpenter, chair of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee, whichapproved the Oxford trial and continues to work with scientists on amendments,told The Telegraph that the team were "absolutely on track".

"They can strengthen findings by targeting people in hospitals,healthcare professionals, where the spread is [more] likely to happen. Nobodycan put final dates ... things might go wrong but the reality is that byworking with a big pharma company, that vaccine could be fairly widelyavailable around September and that is the sort of target they are workingon."

The T-cell discovery is likely to be important because scientistsincreasingly believe that any successful vaccine will need to trigger theproduction of both antibodies and T-cells, which directly attack human cellsthat have already become infected with viruses.

Earlier this year a similar vaccine against MERS invented by the sameOxford team was found to elicit high levels of T-cells, but only triggeredneutralising antibodies in 44 per cent of volunteers.

If the COVID-19 vaccine can be proven in further trials to elicit asimilarly strong T-cell response, the team hopes it may not need to triggerhigh levels of antibodies to provide meaningful protection. A number of othervaccine candidates across the world have also produced T-cell responses, butonly in smaller scale studies. Others including a major project in China arethought to be unlikely to produce T-cells when tested on humans.

This week, the US biotech company, Moderna, published data from a Phase 1 trialinvolving 45 people showing that its RNA vaccine triggered both neutralisingantibodies and T-cells.

The findings come amid increasing gloom over the longevity of COVID-19antibodies. Earlier this week, a King's College London study found that peoplewho recovered from COVID-19 appeared to lose their antibodies within months.

But in a study published in Nature today, researchers found thatT-cells from the SARS outbreak had lasted for 17 years. Duke Universityscientists in Singapore found T-cells were still circulating in potentquantities from patients who were infected in 2003. It is not known for sure ifthe same will be true for COVID-19, and whether the T-cells will protectagainst reinfection, but, speaking to The Telegraph, the lead researcherdescribed the discovery as "potentially very significant for avaccine".

The researchers also found "remarkable" levels of T-cells ableto latch on to the COVID-19 virus within people who had never been infectedwith the disease.

They believe these may have been triggered by the common cold and otheranimal coronaviruses – mainly originating in bats – and that the primed cellsmay also offer protection against the new virus.

Professor Antonio Bertoletti, who led the research in Singapore, said this may explain why so few patients in Singapore and South East Asia have had really severe infections. He said that while these T-cells will be more common in Asia, they will be present around the world. It suggests a significant proportion of all populations will have a degree of natural immunity to COVID-19.

Clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine involving more than 8000 participants, are almost complete. The focus has now moved to Brazil and South Africa, and scientists hope to gather sufficient cases within around a month.

The Telegraph London