APPROACHES TO DEVELOPING LONG-ACTING COVID VACCINES
Future Medicine India|November 2020
T-cell driven vaccine strategy may hold the key to long-term protection against SARS-CoV-2
APPROACHES TO DEVELOPING LONG-ACTING COVID VACCINES

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected over 31 million individuals and claimed over 1.1 million lives globally as of late October 2020. SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, belongs to the coronavirus family and shares 79% genome sequence identity with SARS-CoV. The spike antigen used by the virus to enter host cells became the prime target for immediate vaccine development efforts because of prior work on SARS-CoV, which showed that neutralizing antibodies against the spike antigen protected mice and chimps against new infection. Currently, over 166 vaccines are in development against SARS-CoV-2. These can be divided into two major categories – those using nucleic acid (DNA/RNA), and those using proteins (antibodies, viral proteins, inactivated/attenuated viruses and virus-like particles). Five vaccine candidates based on different approaches – RNA-based delivery of spike protein (Moderna), RNA-based delivery of receptor-binding domain (RBD) of spike protein (Pfizer/BioNTech), DNA-based delivery of spike protein (Inovio), non-replicating adenovirus-based delivery of spike protein (Oxford/ AstraZeneca and CanSino Biologics) and inactivated virus (Sinovac) are in or have completed phase-I/II trials.

Preliminary data from some of these trials show the induction of neutralizing antibodies against the spike antigen. T-cell immunity is relatively less robust in treated individuals. At present, efficacy data are lacking to conclude whether the induction of neutralizing antibodies alone will be sufficient to protect individuals from new infections.

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