The trials, in 39 people, were designed to assess if such vaccines were safe. A second study – involving around 200 people – will give a greater understanding of how well it is training the immune system.
The findings detailed in the Journal of Infection, external said the impact on the immune system was “modest”, but they are still generating excitement.
Prof Saul Faust, who performed some of the trials at the University of Southampton, said the AI design “definitely has potential” and was “really exciting”.
He told the BBC: “What’s really interesting is the technology is an awful lot better at designing vaccines for potential pandemics when viruses are changing.”
The Cambridge team are already performing animal research on universal seasonal flu vaccines that would not need to be adapted every year and an H5N1-bird flu vaccine, in case the virus that is currently devastating bird populations became a human pandemic.
They are also looking at a vaccine for viral haemorrhagic fevers, which would include Ebola species. The current outbreak in the Democratic Republic Congo is being caused by a species that does not have a vaccine developed for it yet.
Prof Andy Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, was not involved in the study, but said this approach was generating compelling evidence in animal research.
“It’s fascinating data and people wouldn’t have predicted they’d be able to generate these immune responses,” he told BBC News.
The real test, he says, is what happens in the human trials as our immune systems are different to laboratory mice as ours have been shaped by years of infections.
More broadly he said artificial intelligence was going to be a “game changer” for vaccine research and that AI tools had the potential to predict how the immune system would respond to a vaccine making development much faster and would “save lives”.
Prof Marian Knight, scientific director for National Institute for Health and Care Research, said: “The remarkable success of this AI-designed ‘super-antigen’ trial marks a pivotal leap forward in our ability to deliver broad, lasting viral protection.”
Science Minister Lord Vallance said: “Another British science success story, this is a great example of how we can bring our research expertise together with AI to deliver new treatments.
“With the first human trials showing positive results, this work could help speed up the roll out vaccines to benefit people all over the world for the long-term.”
