Are We On Track to Have A COVID-19 Vaccine by 2021?

Two vaccine candidates are being pushed to market, but what are they exactly, and how close are we really to having a reliable vaccine?
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Right now, there are more than 160 COVID-19 vaccines in development, but two in particular are making the most headlines; one from Moderna Inc and another from University of Oxford.

Once SARS-CoV-2’s entire genome was sequenced in January 2020 and uploaded to a public database for anyone to copy, the race toward a viable vaccine was on.

Moderna made headlines early in the pandemic because it was one of the first to take this sequenced genome and combine it with their already developed mRNA technology called mRNA-1273. mRNA, or messenger RNA, is an instruction molecule that instructs a cell on how to use that genetic code.

The University of Oxford is taking a different approach. A team is using a weakened and modified version of a chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vector—basically a harmless virus that causes colds in chimps. Their vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (or AZD1222), also uses the genetic code for the coronavirus “spike protein”. But instead of placing it inside an mRNA molecule, the team placed these instructions inside the adenovirus inducing a similar immune response to protect the body from future infections.

Find out more about what makes these COVID-19 vaccines so special and different from the others, and how close they are to actually being available for widespread use in this Elements.

#covid19 #vaccine #pandemic #health #science #seeker #elements


How Fast Can We Make a Coronavirus Vaccine? - https://youtu.be/4wPEQIsybKI

Read More:
mRNA Vaccines https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243
mRNA vaccines represent a promising alternative to conventional vaccine approaches because of their high potency, capacity for rapid development and potential for low-cost manufacture and safe administration. However, their application has until recently been restricted by the instability and inefficient in vivo delivery of mRNA. Recent technological advances have now largely overcome these issues, and multiple mRNA vaccine platforms against infectious diseases and several types of cancer have demonstrated encouraging results in both animal models and humans.

DNA Vaccines—How Far From Clinical Use?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6274812/
"Compared to conventional protein/peptide-based vaccines intended to induce antigen-specific adaptive immune responses, DNA vaccines are more stable, cost-efficient, easy to manufacture and safe in handling [1]. DNA vaccines are being investigated for various applications including therapy of cancer [2], allergies [3], autoimmune [4] and infectious diseases [5]."

Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
"Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March, but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus."
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