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The first test dose of a local company's vaccine intended to fight coronavirus infections was administered Monday. Forty-five healthy adults will eventually be enrolled in the test, which is being conducted by the National Institutes of Health, Cambridge-based Moderna announced Monday.Participants will receive two doses of the trial vaccine, administered 28 days apart. They will receive one of three different dosage amounts, as part of the test of safety and efficacy of the vaccine. With a careful jab in a healthy volunteer’s arm Monday, scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle began the study. “We’re team coronavirus now,” Kaiser Permanente study leader Dr. Lisa Jackson said on the eve of the experiment. “Everyone wants to do what they can in this emergency.”The Associated Press observed as the study’s first participant, an operations manager at a small tech company, received the injection inside an exam room. Several others were next in line for a test that will ultimately give 45 volunteers two doses, a month apart.“We all feel so helpless. This is an amazing opportunity for me to do something,” said Jennifer Haller, 43, of Seattle.She's the mother of two teenagers and “they think it's cool” that she's taking part in the study.For the next 12 months, participants will be tracked and observed for the study. The vaccine was created based on the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, which was shared by the Chinese government. Moderna said its scientists worked with investigators from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to identify the messenger RNA vaccine. There’s no chance participants could get infected from the shots because they don’t contain the coronavirus itself.Moderna researchers said they have tested this technology against multiple viruses including influenza, in six previous clinical trials.A first batch of the vaccine was produced in 42 days with funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, officials said. It was shipped to the National Institutes of Health on Feb. 24. “This study is the first step in the clinical development of an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, and we expect it to provide important information about safety and immunogenicity. We are actively preparing for a potential Phase 2 study under our own (Investigational New Drug Application),” said Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer at Moderna.Starting what scientists call a first-in-humans study is a momentous occasion for scientists, but Jackson described her team’s mood as “subdued.” They’ve been working round-the-clock readying the research in a part of the U.S. struck early and hard by the virus.Still, “going from not even knowing that this virus was out there ... to have any vaccine” in testing in about two months is unprecedented, Jackson told the AP.Some of the study’s carefully chosen healthy volunteers, ages 18 to 55, will get higher dosages than others to test how strong the inoculations should be. Scientists will check for any side effects and draw blood samples to test if the vaccine is revving up the immune system, looking for encouraging clues like the NIH earlier found in vaccinated mice.“We don’t know whether this vaccine will induce an immune response, or whether it will be safe. That’s why we’re doing a trial,” Jackson stressed. “It’s not at the stage where it would be possible or prudent to give it to the general population.”Most of the vaccine research under way globally targets a protein aptly named “spike” that studs the surface of the new coronavirus and lets it invade human cells. Block that protein and people won’t get infected.Researchers at the NIH copied the section of the virus’ genetic code that contains the instructions for cells to create the spike protein. Moderna encased that “messenger RNA” into a vaccine.The idea: The body will become a mini-factory, producing some harmless spike protein. When the immune system spots the foreign protein, it will make antibodies to attack -- and be primed to react quickly if the person later encounters the real virus.That’s a much faster way of producing a vaccine than the traditional approach of growing virus in the lab and preparing shots from either killed or weakened versions of it.But because vaccines are given to millions of healthy people, it takes time to test them in large enough numbers to spot an uncommon side effect, cautioned Dr. Nelson Michael of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which is developing a different vaccine candidate.The Associated Press contributed to this report. PHNjcmlwdCBpZD0iaW5mb2dyYW1fMF85MTUyMTg3My03NmRhLTQ0ZmUtOTA0Ny1mMTllZWFlZGFjNmQiIHRpdGxlPSJDb3JvbmF2aXJ1cyBpbiBNYXNzYWNodXNldHRzIiBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vZS5pbmZvZ3JhbS5jb20vanMvZGlzdC9lbWJlZC5qcz9yeXoiIHR5cGU9InRleHQvamF2YXNjcmlwdCI+PC9zY3JpcHQ+Cg==