DOST funds COVID-19 vaccine immune response study

MANILA, Philippines — Government funds have been made available to support the University of the Philippines-Manila’s vaccine immune response study, which focuses on the World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity COVID-19 Vaccine Trials in the country.

Titled “Vaccine Immune Response and Outcome Monitoring with Epitope Sequences (VIROMES): Application to the Philippine WHO Solidarity COVID-19 Vaccine Trial,” the study is led by Dr. Salvador Eugenio Caoili of the UP-Manila College of Medicine.

The Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) is now funding this two-year study, which started with an initial 125 participants, according to Science Secretary Fortunato dela Peña.

Among the objectives of the project which started in September 2021 are to compare the SARS-CoV-2 strains among participants in the vaccinated-group and placebo-injected group, determine genomic variations of SARS-CoV-2 detected among WHO Solidarity Trial Vaccine (STV) participants, and to correlate the molecular characteristics of circulating SARS-CoV-2 genotypes with the severity of COVID-19 and host immune response.

Dela Peña said that the study could form part of a comprehensive framework for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COVID-19, especially in the setting of mass vaccination with a wide variety of distinct vaccines that complicates disease surveillance and vaccine program monitoring.

“More importantly, this also would build up local capacity to better address the continuous threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases,” Dela Peña said in his weekly virtual Bayanihan report.

The WHO STV campaign started last January with four COVID-19 vaccines provided by the WHO.

The DOST-PCHRD has also provided R&D funding to a study by UP-Manila to check on the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines being administered with emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration in the national vaccination rollout in the country.

The UP-Manila study is led by Dr. Regina Berba, working together with the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, local government units and the Department of Health for the 12-month nationwide surveillance program which started last June.

The study seeks to cover at least 5,000 fully vaccinated adults via antibody testing that will be done at weeks 2, 12, 24, 36 and 52 after receiving the second dose.