Novel Covid vax may provide protection for cancer patients.

ISLAMABAD -- German researchers have developed a new Covid vaccine that is effective among people with weaker immune systems like cancer patients, particularly those with

B-cell deficiencies.

B cells are the immune cells responsible for antibody-mediated responses, which is the main target of all currently approved Covid vaccines. But cancer patients remain immunocompromised as treatments such as chemotherapies and some immunotherapies destroy B cells.

The results presented at the recent AACR Annual Meeting 2022, showed that the vaccine CoVac-1 induced T-cell immune responses in 93 per cent of patients with

B-cell deficiencies, including many patients with leukaemia and lymphoma, Medical Xpress reported.

"To our knowledge, CoVac-1 is currently the only peptide-based vaccine candidate specifically developed and evaluated for immunocompromised patients," said Juliane Walz, Professor at the University Hospital Tubingen in Germany.

The CoVac-1 vaccine enhances the response from T cells - another type of immune cell, and "previous evidence has shown that T cells can combat Covid-19 even in the absence of neutralising antibodies," said Claudia Tandler, a graduate student at the University. "T-cell immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 are of particular importance for patients with B-cell deficiencies, who develop very limited antibody responses after infection or vaccination," Tandler added.

To develop CoVac-1, Tandler and team chose six specific antigens from...