What’s the link between coronavirus vaccines and gut bacteria? US firm wants people to pass out clues
- Persephone Biosciences is recruiting volunteers for a study that will look for links between vaccine efficacy and the microbiome
- Researchers plan to collect stool and blood samples from volunteers before and after they receive a Covid-19 vaccine
A US biotech firm trying to figure out why coronavirus vaccines work better for some people than others is searching for clues in an unlikely place: faeces.
Persephone Biosciences based in San Diego is recruiting volunteers for a 250-person study that will look for links between vaccine efficacy and the microbiome: the diverse and dazzling community of bacteria that live inside your intestines.
There is good precedent for such a study. In 2019, Stanford scientists reported that healthy volunteers who took antibiotics before and after their flu shot had weaker antibody responses than untreated participants.
Antibodies, which are Y-shaped proteins made by the immune system, are often the key to a successful vaccine response, as they can latch onto a virus and prevent infection.
There have been similar studies in the world of immunotherapy, which uses treatments that rev up the body’s immune response against cancer cells.