Coronavirus Vaccines Precision Vaccinations

Coronaviruses without preventive vaccines are the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), and thenovel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causesCOVID-19 diseasein humans.

There are 5approaches currently being taken by various organizations deployingdifferent technologies to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

As of March 16,2020, the US Food and Drug Administration has not approved any preventive or therapeutic vaccines for use against the SARS, MERS orSARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses.

The need for human coronavirusvaccines was first identified in the mid-1960s.Over the past 10 years, however, gaps in our scientific understanding remain.

The emergence of a highly pathogenic coronavirus (CoV) in the Middle East has sparked new interest in human coronaviruses around the world. MERS-CoVwas identified in 2012, almost 10 years after the highly fatal human SARS-CoVemerged from China in 2003.

During 2012, asubunit vaccine, RBD-S, started development to prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which is classified by the US NIH as a category C pathogen. This vaccine is comprised of a recombinant receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV spike (S) protein and formulated on alum, together with a synthetic glucopyranosyl lipid A.

The initial coronavirus vaccine development effort (prototype RBD219 N1)was launched in 2012, by a research team which includedDr. Peter J. Hoetz, with Baylor Medical Center, in Houston, Texas.

Previous efforts to create a vaccine for SARS-CoV have utilized a number of approaches. In general, the potential vaccinescan be classified into six types: viral vector-based vaccine, DNA vaccine, subunit vaccine, nanoparticle-based vaccine, inactivated-whole virus vaccine and live-attenuated vaccine, which are discussed in detail.

Vaccines based on whole, inactivated SARS-CoV, spike subunits, recombinant viruses expressing SARS-CoV proteins, DNA plasmids expressing SARS-CoV proteins, or virus-like particles (VLPs) have all been testedin vitroandin vivo.

And research on MERS-CoV vaccination strategies is in the early stages. However, early studies using a modified vaccinia virus and spike subunit vaccines have been shown to induce MERS-CoV-neutralizing antibodies in mice.

An effective MERS-CoV vaccine is required to induce both robust humoral and cell-mediated immunities, particularly antibody responses are crucial for the survival of the vaccinated hosts (Du et al., 2016b). Previous studies indicated that the level of serum neutralizing antibodies correlated positively with the reduction of lung pathogenesis, which increased the survival of animals challenged with MERS-CoV (Zhao et al., 2015;Zhang et al., 2016). Therefore, most of the MERS-CoV vaccine candidates are still based on the full length or part of the S protein.

On February 5, 2020,JAMApublished a new study from genetic sequencing data, it appears that there was a single introduction into humans followed by the human-to-human virus spread. This novel virus shares 79.5% of the genetic sequence with SARS-CoV and has 96.2% homology to a bat coronavirus.In addition, 2019-nCoV shares the same cell entry receptor, ACE2, with SARS-CoV.

And on February 15, 2020, the CDC announced it hadgrown the COVID-19 virus in cell culture, which is necessary for further studies, including for additional genetic characterization. The cell-grown virus was sent to NIHsBEI Resources Repository for use by the broad scientific community to develop preventive and therapeutic vaccines.

Investigations are underway to determine the virus source, types of exposure that lead to infection, mode of transmission and the clinical pattern and course of the disease.

Content sourceson this webpage include, but are not limited to, the WHO, theCDC, industry studies, and clinicalTrials.gov. The content wasFact-Checked by Dr. Robert Carlson and other healthcare professionals on March 16, 2020. Precision Vax's digital network includes Coronavirus Today.com,Precision Vaccinations.com, Zika News.com, and Vax-Before-Travel.com.

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Coronavirus Vaccines Precision Vaccinations