Vaccinations in light of COVID 19 - What can we learn?
The corona virus outbreak is yet another example of how diseases don’t respect borders. Infection rates are increasing around the world, and as it stands there is no cure or vaccine available to tackle this problem. The fear and uncertainty of this outbreak has led to disruption to financial stock markets around the world. This requires immediate attention, and the best way to tackle this issue is to create a vaccine.
Vaccines have the most effective method of prevention infectious diseases worldwide, preventing diseases such as influenza, HPV, cholera, measles. However because COVID-19 is a mutation of the SARS virus (which caused its own outbreak in 2002), its genotype, and phenotype is novel, and therefore huge amounts of lab experiments and research are required to make an appropriate, novel, vaccine. Currently this does not exist, however there are more than 40 potential vaccines in the pipeline; one produced by Boston-bases biotech company ‘Moderna’ also began human clinical trials on 16th March. Although most experts around the world suggest it will take at least another 12 months before an effective vaccine is available freely in the market, for everyone to access.
Vaccines are usually in the form of dead or inactive forms of a pathogen, or an isolated part of the pathogen, which is injected into the individual. This ‘weaker’ form of the pathogen is then able to switch on the body’s defence mechanism-the immune system, and we are able to build the ‘memory B cells’ and ‘antibodies’ we need, which are able to recognise the pathogen much quicker the second time the pathogen infects us. This way we are able to clear the pathogen upon re-infection, and prevent it from making us from experiencing negative symptoms.
The reason it takes so long for vaccines to develop is the potential consequences if they’re not up to the mark. There is a possibility that the injected pathogen may not be quite ‘weak’ enough, and therefore end up causing damage, once injected. In order to combat this, and to provide more advanced methods of vaccination, some companies are constructing a ‘recombinant’ vaccine. This is true for the company ‘Novavax’. This involves extracting the genetic spike of the virus (which is primarily responsible for causing the immune response in infected individuals), and passing it into the genome of bacteria or yeast. This stimulates the microorganism to churn out huge quantities of this protein, which can then be injected into individuals. Since this will also stimulate an immune response within the individual, they will produce memory B cells and antibodies, and will become immune, without the risk of potential side effects.
Currently, CEPI (coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), a Norway based non-profit organisation is the leading financier of the efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. They have mentioned that creating a vaccine within 12 months in itself is an incredibly difficult task. Although they have managed to take certain steps in order to expedite their efforts, they have been investigating similar molecularly structured corona viruses (Coronaviruses are a family of viruses). This can be quite beneficial, especially to kick-start the research needed, especially in this case as the current COVID-19 shares between 80-90% of its genetic material with the SARS virus from 2002.
Though the journey is long, and there are many obstacles in the way, we are heading in the direction of creating a safe, and effective vaccine. Sooner or later corona virus will be another disease of the past!
