A new vaccine protects mice from another dangerous coronavirus
A spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These crown-like structures give coronaviruses their namesakes. (NIH/)Scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an extremely virulent respiratory disease caused by a virus belonging to the same family as the one responsible for COVID-19. In a recent experiment, all the vaccinated mice survived what should have been a lethal dose of the MERS coronavirus, MERS-CoV.The vaccine still has a long way to go before it could be ready for human use. Still, the results are promising, and the researchers are adapting the vaccine to create a version that would be effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.“This is a mouse model for a vaccine, so we can’t claim that it perfectly mimics the human immune system and what would happen in humans,” says Paul McCray, a pediatric pulmonologist...