Due to the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists around the world are racing to produce a coronavirus vaccine at warp speed. A vaccine usually takes years to develop, but this will be an exception to the rule.
More than 140 coronavirus vaccines are under development around the world.
There is not a lot of specific information about those investigations because the information is managed as highly confidential information in every country, so we do not know when exactly they will be ready. The fact is, a safe vaccine takes a certain amount of time to be produced and there are many health risks to commercialize a non-safe vaccine for coronavirus or any other disease. Nevertheless, there is high and realistic hope that a vaccine will be ready by the end of 2020.
Here are Some of the front runners:
Russia’s vaccine
Russia’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus is ready, a government official said on Tuesday. Two groups of volunteers have successfully completed clinical trials, with all of them having built up immunity to the coronavirus and felt well. The vaccine was jointly developed by the “Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology” and the “Main Military Clinical Burdenko Hospital”, same institutions who helped years ago to develop a vaccine against the Ebola virus.
They expect approval from regulatory bodies in the Russian Federation next month, and immediately after that they plan to start mass production.
The Oxford’ Vaccine
A University of Oxford group and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company “AstraZeneca” reported Monday that their coronavirus vaccine candidate was shown in early-stage human trials to be safe and to stimulate a strong immune response.
The Chinese Vaccine
Brazilian officials on Thursday announced an agreement with China’s Sinovac Biotech to produce its coronavirus vaccine in the state of Sao Paulo, where tests involving 9000 volunteers have already begun. The studies show that the vaccine could be distributed between December 2020 and June 2021, if tests prove conclusive.
The Indian Vaccine
The Indian biotechnology company “Bharat Biotech” got the regulatory approval from the Drug Controller General of India to conduct clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate “Covaxin”. Also, India has another vaccine candidate name “ZyCoV-D”, which was developed at the Vaccine Technology Center in Ahmedabad and already proved to be successful in its clinical trials.
The mentioned biotechnology company had taken two different approaches to develop the vaccine candidate. The first one being the development of a DNA vaccine by using the viral protein of the virus, which would in turn trigger the body’s immune system against the coronavirus. The second approach included producing the vaccine candidate using live attenuated recombination measles virus.
It is unlikely that India’s COVAXIN will be available for an August 15, 2020 release as previously announced.
The Cuban Vaccine
The CEO of the “Cuban Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology” has said that a vaccine known as CIGB 2020 is undergoing trials at one of the hospitals in Havana-Cuba on volunteer patients suspected of being carriers of the disease. The mentioned vaccine is nasally and sub-lingually administrated, and the trials involve stimulating a specific immune response through activating the innate immune system.
The Israeli Vaccine
Israeli Defense Minister has said that scientists at the country’s main biological research institute have made a significant breakthrough in developing an antibody to the novel coronavirus. The antibody that attacks the virus is a monoclonal way and can neutralize it within the bodies of those ill.
The statement said that the antibody’s development had been completed and the institute is in the process of patenting the find and in the next stage, researchers will approach international companies to produce the antibody on a commercial scale.
The new coronavirus is aRNA virus:a collection of genetic material packed inside of a protein shell. Once a RNA virus makes contact with a host (a cell), it starts to replicateitself,and those replicas can go on to infect other cells. RNA viruses are more prone to changes and mutations compared with DNA viruses.
“In the world of RNA viruses, change is the norm. We expect RNA viruses to change frequently. That’s just their nature,” saidDr. Mark Schleiss,a pediatric infectious disease specialist and investigator with theInstitute for Molecular Virologyat the University of Minnesota.
What is a Virus Mutation? And, Why the Viruses change?
A Virus Mutation is a Genetic Change. Viruses undergo genetic changes by several mechanisms. These include a process called antigenicdriftwhere individual bases in the DNA or RNAmutateto other bases. Most of thesepointmutationsare “silent”—they do not change the protein that the gene encodes—but others can confer evolutionary advantages such as resistance to antiviraldrugs.
We can say that to mutate is a natural instinct. The viruses have biological memory so they can remember the antiviral drugs used against them, and when they are replicating, they make genetic changes to make sure that the new viruses will be invulnerable to that antiviral drug.
A new study from the Scripps Research Institute in Florida suggests the new coronavirus has mutated into a variant that’s more infectious. The mutation known as “the D614G mutation” occurred on the spike protein. That’s the part of the virus that helps it bind and fuse to our cells. The D614G mutation makes it easier for the virus to infect the cells.
Coronavirus Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body’s immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and to further recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future. Vaccines can be prophylactic or therapeutic.
The scientific evidence proves that the virus is mutating at a very slow rate. When it mutates, the new copies aren’t far off from the original virus. “The sequences of the original isolates from China are very close to those in viruses circulating in the U.S. and the rest of the world,” said Dr. John Rose, a senior research scientist in the department of pathology at Yale Medicine who’s helping develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
In theory, a Coronavirus Vaccine is right around the corner, but if the scientists achieve this after the COVID-19 gets through a structural mutation, that vaccine could be useless. In this fortuneless hypothetic scenario, humanity could be in front of a new and stronger virus. We hope and pray that mentioned scenario never happens, and finally the scientists get the vaccine before signification mutation.
In the meantime, we encourage people to practice extreme preventative measures such as staying at home, social distancing, mask wearing for all and practicing good hygiene.
Dr. Elber Borrego Almaguer is a Cuban born and trained General Doctor with a Degree in Surgery who has now made Guyana his home. He resides in Linden, Region 10, Guyana, South Americ with his Guyanese born wife who is also a medical doctor.
