Saskatoon researcher to study vaccine protection in vulnerable people
A project at VIDO at the University of Saskatchewan will examine how COVID-19 vaccines provide protection from variants of concern.
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Alyson Kelvin is trying to get ahead of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Kelvin, a scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, has received a grant worth nearly $500,000 to research the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in vulnerable populations.
Kelvin will study the protection COVID-19 vaccines provide in older, “frail” populations and in a group of people who are HIV positive, to see how well they protect against variants of concern.
The ultimate goal is to help develop a better vaccine that can address the COVID-19 variants of concern that have made limiting the pandemic such a challenge, she said in an interview on Monday.
“This should help us bring down the numbers of COVID-19 cases, especially in our vulnerable areas, which really is where the majority of our deaths and hospitalizations are — in people who are immunocompromised, who are older, who have co-morbidities, mostly unvaccinated, but vaccinated as well,” Kelvin said.
“And if we can anticipate that these people might not have as broad a response to the new variants, and if we can predict where their immunity will stop lasting, then we can have a better vaccine for them.”
Older people with diminished immune systems and people with compromised immune systems often produce less robust reactions to vaccines, she said.
The research is expected to help guide the development of the vaccine at VIDO, as well as provide direction for other developers.
The volunteers participating in the study include a group of long-term care residents in Nova Scotia who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and recovered from COVID-19.
Another group is comprised of centenarians and people in their 90s from Italy who have either been vaccinated against COVID-19, infected with SARS-CoV-2 and then vaccinated, or vaccinated and then infected with a breakthrough case.
The third group includes people from Rwanda whose immune systems are compromised by HIV. The study will look at this group’s reaction to COVID-19 vaccines, taking into account other medication they might be taking for HIV.
The results are expected in about six to nine months, Kelvin said.
“We want to know quickly how people who are vulnerable are protected from new variants.”
The funding for the VIDO study comes from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research Emerging COVID-19 Research Gaps and Priorities Fund.
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