Other Vaccines Have Needed Improvements To Help Them Last Longer
Starting at two months of age, doctors recommend that babies get a vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae, or Hib, a common bacteria that can cause serious infections if it invades the lungs, blood or brain. These bacteria are coated with chains of sugars, or polysaccharides, that help mask them to our immune systems.
In the 1980s, scientists figured out that you could use those sugar chains to build a vaccine to protect children from serious infections.
The initial Hib vaccine was a polysaccharide vaccine, but it did not induce long-lived antibody levels, so we dont even use it now, said Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious disease expert who studies how the immune system responds to vaccines at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Todays Hib vaccine still contains the sugar chains, but they are linked to protein pieces that stimulate a different part of the immune system to better remember the bacteria. Its called a protein conjugate vaccine.
Another example of a vaccine that didnt ultimately provide long-lasting immunity was the pneumococcal vaccine for pneumonia. It, too, started life as a polysaccharide vaccine, but was changed to a protein conjugate after researchers determined that change could extend its protection.
Certain vaccines inherently do this, just because of the way they are designed, Fauci said, and the nanoparticles being built into some experimental vaccines are an example of this.
What Are Some Disadvantages Of Whole Virus Vaccines
There are some downsides to whole virus vaccines.
To produce inactivated virus vaccines, you must first produce a huge amount of live coronavirus and then inactivate it. There is a small, but legitimate biohazard risk associated with producing a lot of live coronavirus. A second disadvantage is that inactivated virus and viral vector vaccines might not produce strong protection in immunocompromised patients.
Finally, producing whole virus vaccines is much more labor intensive compared to making mRNA vaccines. You must grow, then purify and then inactivate the virus while carefully checking the quality at each step. This long production process makes it hard to produce large amounts of the vaccine. For the same reasons, redesigning or updating whole-virus vaccines for future variants is more difficult compared to simply changing the code of nucleic acid-based or protein-based vaccine.
Looking at the pros and cons of each vaccine type, we believe virus-based vaccines could play an important role in generating a long-lasting, broad immunity against a rapidly mutating virus. But easily updated mRNA or protein-based approaches that can be fine-tuned to the latest variants can also be key in containing the spread of the pandemic. With vaccines of all types in the works, public health officials and governments around the world will have more tools at their disposal to deal with whatever the coronavirus brings next.
Nasal Sprays For Covid Vaccine Being Developed
May 9, 2022 — Scientists are working on COVID vaccines delivered through nasal sprays that could stop the coronavirus from invading the body at its most common entry point, the mucous membrane of the nose and throat.
More than a dozen clinical trials with nasal sprays are under way, The Guardian reported.
USA Today said Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, and Mexico have already started manufacturing the nasal vaccine in anticipation of success in the clinical trials.
A nasal vaccine would probably be employed as a booster in the United States but might be widely used in less-developed parts of the world where injectable vaccines are not common, USA Today reported.
While injectable vaccines help the body ward off severe illness, nasal vaccines could stop the virus from entering the body in the first place. The effectiveness of injectable vaccines wanes over time, and COVID variants can evade the vaccines, as evidenced by the high number of Omicron cases.
âIf you think of your body as a castle, an intramuscular vaccination is really protecting the inner areas of your castle so once invaders come in, that immunity protects against them taking the throne,â Sean Liu, MD, medical director of the Covid clinical trials unit at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told The Guardian.
âBut if you train your immune system to work at the gates of the castle, then the invaders not only have trouble getting in, but they may have trouble spreading inside.â
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Tapping Into A Natural Process
mRNA vaccines are inspired by basic biology.
Cells store DNA that holds coded instructions for making proteins. When a cell needs to make a protein, it copies the appropriate instructions onto a messenger RNA molecule a single strand of genetic material. A cellular machine called a ribosome then runs along this code, reads it, and shoots out the correct building blocks to make the protein. Proteins are the essential workers of the body, forming the structure of cells, making tissue, fueling chemical reactions and sending messages: Without them, everything would shut down.
Around three decades ago, scientists realized that they could synthesize mRNA in the lab, deliver it into human cells and use the body to make any protein they wanted, such as proteins that could help fight a range of diseases in the body from cancers to respiratory illnesses. In 1990, researchers at the University of Wisconsin and biotech company Vical Incorporated figured out how to make mRNA that could direct mice cells to create proteins, according to Business Insider.
Neither company initially set out to develop mRNA vaccines against infectious diseases, but eventually started to expand into that field with mRNA flu, cytomegalovirus and Zika virus vaccines in development or clinical trials. But then a deadly virus presented a unique opportunity to test, in large groups of people, just how powerful the technology could be.
An Mrna Vaccine Boost May Help Car T
To create this vaccine, the investigators first scoured the coronavirus genome using an algorithm that would highlight any viral protein fragments or peptides that would cause a T cell to perk up, said Juliane Walz, the medical director of translational immunology at the University Hospital Tübingen and the lead author of the study.
Im a hematologist and oncologist by training, and we realized very early on in the pandemic that our patients are at severe risk of Covid, and we knew that they wouldnt make a sufficient antibody response, Walz said. So we decided to develop a peptide vaccine to induce a T cell response to patients.
To test the peptides their algorithm underscored, the lab made synthetic versions of the peptides and then tested them on T cells from healthy patients who had already recovered from Covid. Then, they looked to see which peptides seemed to elicit the greatest immune response from the T cells and included them in the vaccines recipe. Those turned out to be proteins from many different parts of the virus.
This particular vaccine has peptides from the spike protein, nucleic acid, membrane envelope, along with agents to basically hype up the immune system, Walz said.
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New Covid Vaccine Highly Effective Against Severe Disease Companies Say
The companies, Sanofi and GSK, say they plan to submit data to the FDA and regulators in Europe.
Jessica Rendall
Jessica is a Wellness News Writer who wants to help people stay informed about their health. She’s from the Midwest, studied investigative reporting at the Missouri School of Journalism and is now based in NYC.
A new COVID vaccine was 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalization during a clinical trial, the vaccine’s makers, Sanofi and GSK, said Wednesday in a press release. As promising data rolls in, the companies plan to seek authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration and regulators in Europe.
The two-dose vaccine was also 75% effective at preventing “moderate or severe” COVID-19 disease in Phase 3 of the trial, as well as 57.9% effective against symptomatic disease. This is in line, the companies said, with expected vaccine effectiveness during a time when variants of concern were dominant.
The vaccine is also effective as a booster for people who’ve been vaccinated with another COVID-19 vaccine, the companies said. They will also ask the FDA and other regulators to consider it as a booster candidate.
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, a similar vaccine, submitted data for authorization to the FDA last month.
Read more: Here’s How Long Your COVID Vaccine Booster Provides Protection
Covid 19 Vaccine Developed By Us Researchers Could Help Low
An affordable COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. researchers and being produced in India could help address the vaccine inequity that is prolonging the pandemic as hundreds of millions in low-income countries wait for shots, according to public health experts.
India recently granted restricted emergency authorization to the vaccine, called Corbevax, which is based on a conventional, protein-based technology.
The Hyderabad-based company Biological E that collaborated with Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, has said it will make 100 million doses starting next month and plans to deliver 1 billion doses globally. It already has a stockpile of 150 million doses.
There could still be time before Corbevax shots get into arms Indian authorities have not yet added it to the shots being presently used in the countrys inoculation program.
The vaccines affordability is getting attention, though, as the raging omicron variant turns the spotlight on the abysmally low vaccination coverage in many countries and raises demands for booster shots in others.
Public health experts are optimistic that the vaccine could make a difference in Asian and African countries where vaccine coverage is abysmally low.
The developers of Corbevax say they are talking to manufacturers around the world.
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What To Know About The New Covid Vaccine From Sanofi
The companies said the vaccine was highly effective in clinical trials. Here’s what we know about it now, and when it could be available.
Jessica Rendall
Jessica is a Wellness News Writer who wants to help people stay informed about their health. She’s from the Midwest, studied investigative reporting at the Missouri School of Journalism and is now based in NYC.
Last week, Sanofi and GSK announced that their COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective — as high as 100% against hospitalization, according to the results of a clinical trial shared by the companies. It’s also effective as a booster, and Sanofi and GSK said the vaccine will be submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration as well as European regulators for use as a primary COVID-19 vaccine series and a booster.
As the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosens the mask guidance for the majority of the country, and the Biden administration increases focus on COVID-19 treatment with initiatives like Test to Treat, infection prevention remains an imperative part of the fight against COVID-19.
Here’s what we know about the Sanofi-GSK vaccine — one of many being developed that researchers hope might add to the world’s arsenal.
Cancer Patients Hope Infusions Might Enhance Protection Against Covid
For many participants, Walz said their T cell responses exceeded those of healthy patients who received the mRNA vaccines or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It was also comparable to the T cell response of healthy individuals who recovered from Covid and only had a T cell response to their infection. Importantly, Walz added, all of these T cell responses were measured in the teams lab at Tübingen.
Conceptually, its better for B-cell-deficient patients, Lee Greenberger, an immunologist and chief scientific officer of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society who did not work on this vaccine, said of the approach. One potential benefit might be longer-lasting protection, Greenberger speculated, since the coronavirus is unlikely to mutate every protein epitope included in this vaccine.
But questions abound. For instance, theres a subset of blood cancer patients who had neither a T cell nor an antibody response to currently approved vaccines. Its unclear if this vaccine would still be able to elicit a T cell response in many of them. And we dont know which of these T cell responses are the most potent in avoiding infection and hospitalization, he said.
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‘mimicking A Viral Infection’
The vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer are likely so successful because they’re “mimicking a viral infection,” by activating two major immune responses in the body, said Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases and of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The better-known response involves antibodies: The cells expel the spike proteins they make these trigger the immune system to create antibodies against them, Yang told Live Science. Antibodies are found in blood, tissues and fluids but they can’t access a virus that’s already inside the cell, “so the immune system evolved a way to deal with that,” Yang said.
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That response involves killer T cells, also known as CD8 T cells. These killers scan cell surfaces cells display small pieces of all the proteins they make on their surface and destroy the ones that are infected by a virus. SARS-CoV-2 vaccines can also wave a warning flag for killer T cells: after the mRNA prompts cells to make the spike protein, cells display processed fragments of it on its surface.
This gives mRNA vaccines an advantage over more traditional vaccines such as those for flu or rabies, that are made from killed versions of the actual pathogen or their target proteins. Killed virus vaccines can’t get into cells, so they trigger antibodies but not the killer T-cell response, Yang said.
The Vaccine Testing Process
The development cycle of a vaccine, from lab to clinic.
PRECLINICAL TESTING: Scientists test a new vaccine on cells and then give it to animals such as mice or monkeys to see if it produces an immune response.
PHASE 1 SAFETY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to a small number of people to test safety and dosage, as well as to confirm that it stimulates the immune system.
PHASE 2 EXPANDED TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to hundreds of people split into groups, such as children and the elderly, to see if the vaccine acts differently in them. These trials further test the vaccines safety.
PHASE 3 EFFICACY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to thousands of people and wait to see how many become infected, compared with volunteers who received a placebo. These trials can determine if the vaccine protects against the coronavirus, measuring whats known as the efficacy rate. Phase 3 trials are also large enough to reveal evidence of relatively rare side effects.
EARLY OR LIMITED APPROVAL: Many countries have procedures for providing emergency authorizations for vaccines, based on preliminary evidence that they are safe and effective. In addition, some countries such as China and Russia began administering vaccines before detailed Phase 3 trial data was made public. Experts have warned of serious risks from jumping ahead of these results.
emergency use
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What Goes Into Making A Coronavirus Vaccine
Several different countries isolated the new coronavirus, so its genetic sequence became available online. We can use that to find the protein that is critical for the virus to infect humans and use a portion of that protein to create a vaccine that will generate an antibody response to prevent the virus from infecting human cells.
We aim to do that either by making a DNA-based vaccine that contains genes that produce the virus protein, or by making a vaccine that includes a portion of the actual protein.
There are no DNA-based vaccines currently approved for humans, although there is a West Nile Virus DNA-based vaccine for horses. Protein-based vaccines include the hepatitis B vaccine.
How Far Have Researchers Gotten In The Development Of A Vaccine
There are more than 200 clinical trials worldwide testing potential vaccines, known as candidates, against COVID-19. So far, seven of the vaccine candidates have been approved.
Please note: To be displayed as approved in the chart, a vaccine needs to be either approved by the USFDA or the European Medicines Agency , or cleared for emergency use by FDA, EMA or WHO. More details can be found here.
The approved vaccines were developed by:
Researchers are pursuing 13 different approaches for vaccines against COVID-19.
Most of the vaccine candidates use a protein-based subunit so, instead of using a complete pathogenic virus, they are built on a small component of it, such as a protein found in its outer shell.
That protein is administered to patients in a high dose, with the aim of inducing a fast and strong reaction by the human immune system.
The hope is that the immune system will “remember” the protein and trigger a similar defense reaction if or when it comes into contact with the actual virus.
Vaccines against hepatitis B and HPV , for example, are based on this principle.
Four additional approaches have made it to phase III.
Inactivated vaccines use a “dead” version of the pathogen. They tend to provide a lower level of protection than live vaccines. Some vaccines in this class have to be administered several times to achieve sufficient immunity. Examples of inactivated vaccines include ones against influenza and hepatitis A.
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Is It True Were Covid
It may seem vaccines were developed quickly, but researchers around the world have been working hard to develop vaccines from the start of the pandemic. They were able to speed up development thanks to the collaboration between them, scientists, manufacturers and distributors. Find out more below.
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