The Rheumatologist
COVID-19 NewsACR Convergence
  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed
  • Home
  • Conditions
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • SLE (Lupus)
    • Crystal Arthritis
      • Gout Resource Center
    • Spondyloarthritis
    • Osteoarthritis
    • Soft Tissue Pain
    • Scleroderma
    • Vasculitis
    • Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes
    • Guidelines
  • Resource Centers
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
    • Gout Resource Center
    • Psoriatic Arthritis Resource Center
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
  • Drug Updates
    • Biologics & Biosimilars
    • DMARDs & Immunosuppressives
    • Topical Drugs
    • Analgesics
    • Safety
    • Pharma Co. News
  • Professional Topics
    • Ethics
    • Legal
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Career Development
      • Certification
      • Education & Training
    • Awards
    • Profiles
    • President’s Perspective
    • Rheuminations
    • Interprofessional Perspective
  • Practice Management
    • Billing/Coding
    • Quality Assurance/Improvement
    • Workforce
    • Facility
    • Patient Perspective
    • Electronic Health Records
    • Apps
    • Information Technology
    • From the College
    • Multimedia
      • Audio
      • Video
  • Resources
    • Issue Archives
    • ACR Convergence
      • Gout Resource Center
      • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
      • Psoriatic Arthritis
      • Abstracts
      • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence Home
    • American College of Rheumatology
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Research Reviews
    • ACR Journals
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
    • Rheumatology Image Library
    • Treatment Guidelines
    • Rheumatology Research Foundation
    • Events
  • About Us
    • Mission/Vision
    • Meet the Authors
    • Meet the Editors
    • Contribute to The Rheumatologist
    • Subscription
    • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Search
You are here: Home / Articles / ACR Convergence 2020: Progress Toward COVID-19 Vaccines

ACR Convergence 2020: Progress Toward COVID-19 Vaccines

November 11, 2020 • By Ruth Jessen Hickman, MD

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version / Save PDF

ACR Convergence 2020ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—A scientific session on Sunday, Nov. 8, focused on vaccine prospects in COVID-19. Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, shared his insights about vaccine development across the field, reported on data concerning his lab’s contributions and fielded questions from meeting participants.

You Might Also Like
  • ACR Convergence 2020: COVID-19 Hyper-Inflammation in Kids
  • ACR Convergence 2020 Keynote Speaker to Discuss COVID-19 & a Changing Medical Communications Industry
  • COVID-19 Perspectives Shared in ACR Convergence Opening Session
Explore This Issue
December 2020
Also By This Author
  • Understanding the Role of Uric Acid in Gout

R&D of the Ad26 Vaccine
Dr. Barouch’s lab began working on a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 in early January, just after the viral gene sequence was publicly released. From the initial clinical data, the researchers thought it highly likely that an effective vaccine could be feasible. Early reports indicated that most people who get the virus recover and completely clear the virus. Unlike some other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 has limited strain diversity. And prior data already strongly suggested the appropriate antibody target, the COVID-19 spike protein. All these factors made it likely that a successful vaccine could be developed.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

At the same time, the team began research to address fundamental questions related to COVID-19 immunology that would prove important for vaccine development for programs worldwide. Was there a natural immunity that would protect individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 if they were re-exposed? Could a vaccine theoretically induce immunity? If so, what were the “correlates of protection,” the specific markers that could be measured to indicate an individual would be protected from the disease if exposed?

Dr. Barouch’s lab helped address these key questions, in work published at the end of May, through an animal model using rhesus macaques. In their first study, they demonstrated proof that natural protective immunity occurred after virus exposure.1

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“We think that is very important for the vaccine field, because it is much easier to develop a vaccine for a virus that has natural protective immunity, compared to a virus for which there is no protective immunity,” said Dr. Barouch.

For its second paper, the team developed an early prototype vaccine study, also in macaques. Here they demonstrated for the first time that there was a potential immune correlate; the neutralizing antibody titers introduced by the vaccine inversely correlated with peak viral loads.2 They reasoned that if this correlate was generalizable to humans and to other vaccines, it could be a powerful tool to accelerate vaccine development more broadly.

With industry support from Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Barouch’s lab developed a COVID-19 vaccine based on an adenovector. This deactivated adenovirus can insert DNA from the COVID-19 spike protein into cells, which can then make the protein and provoke an immune response.3 This same vector platform has been used to manufacture candidate vaccines for HIV, Zika virus, Ebola virus, RSV and others. A phase 3 trial of their vaccine (Ad26.COV2.S) is underway, with results expected sometime next year.

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 | Single Page

Filed Under: ACR Convergence, Meeting Reports Tagged With: ACR Convergence 2020, COVID-19, vaccine, vaccinesIssue: December 2020

You Might Also Like:
  • ACR Convergence 2020: COVID-19 Hyper-Inflammation in Kids
  • ACR Convergence 2020 Keynote Speaker to Discuss COVID-19 & a Changing Medical Communications Industry
  • COVID-19 Perspectives Shared in ACR Convergence Opening Session
  • ACR Convergence 2020 Kicks Off: Plenary session speakers highlight racial differences in lupus & COVID-19-related findings

About Ruth Jessen Hickman, MD

Ruth Jessen Hickman, MD, was born and raised in eastern Kentucky, where she first cultivated her love of literature, writing and personal narratives. She attended Kenyon college, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, summa cum laude. She worked with individuals with psychiatric conditions and later in a neuroscience lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago, before graduating from Indiana University Medical School in 2011. Instead of pursuing clinical medicine, Ruth opted to build on her strength of clearly explaining medical topics though a career as a freelance medical writer, writing both for lay people and for health professionals. She writes across the biomedical sciences, but holds strong interests in rheumatology, neurology, autoimmune diseases, genetics, and the intersection of broader social, cultural and emotional contexts with biomedical topics. Ruth now lives in Bloomington, Ind., with her husband, son and cat. She can be contacted via her website at ruthjessenhickman.com.

View more by this author»

American College of Rheumatology

Visit the official website for the American College of Rheumatology.

Visit the ACR »

Meeting Abstracts

Browse and search abstracts from the ACR Convergence and ACR/ARP Annual Meetings going back to 2012.

Visit the Abstracts site »

Simple Tasks

Learn more about the ACR’s public awareness campaign and how you can get involved. Help increase visibility of rheumatic diseases and decrease the number of people left untreated.

Visit the Simple Tasks site »

The Rheumatologist newsmagazine reports on issues and trends in the management and treatment of rheumatic diseases. The Rheumatologist reaches 11,500 rheumatologists, internists, orthopedic surgeons, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who practice, research, or teach in the field of rheumatology.

About Us / Contact Us / Advertise / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use / Cookie Preferences

  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed

Copyright © 2006–2023 American College of Rheumatology. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1931-3268 (print)
ISSN 1931-3209 (online)