While you are – hopefully – doing home office and studying at your house, scientists from all around the world are looking for a vaccine against Covid-19. The main goal of a vaccine is to train the human’s body against the virus, therefore it’s possible to develop a resistance if in touch with the disease. We know that without it we could never go back the way it was before the pandemic. But, how are the processes right now and how long they might take?
Which are the potential vaccines on the race?
By now, there are a total of 6 vaccines being studied around the globe that already started to be tested on humans, but they have different methods of research. Two of them are located in the USA, one being developed by the pharmaceutical company Moderna Therapeutics, named “mRNA-1273”, and is not using the virus itself for the research, only a very small part of it, that can be extracted in a laboratory. The other, “INO-4800”, is also by a pharmacy company, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, that is also using a different method: elaborate a DNA for the virus and insert it inside our cellules – so we can develop anti-corpus against it.
Another three of them are being studied in China, and follow more traditional methods of research. We have one by CanSino Biologics, a biotechnological company, named “AD5-nCoV”, that is using the virus that causes the common cold as a vector for the corona, training to develop an immune response on us. Another one, by Shenzhen Genoimmune Medical Institute, called “LV-SMENP-DC”, modifies a specific cellule of our bodies – leukocytes that protect the body from antigens – also attempting to have an immunological response.
The third one in China – with no name – is by the National Pharmacist of China, Sinopharm, and uses the most common way to elaborate a vaccine: virus inactivated. An inactivated vaccine is made up of particles of viruses, bacteria or other parts, with no ability to cause disease.
And last, but not least, we have one in the United Kingdom, by the University of Oxford, called “ChAdOx1”. Here they are using a strategy similar to the CanSino company in China: develop a virus that is not harmful, but has the protein of corona.
What is the process to develop a vaccine?
First, the vaccines are studied in laboratories and tested in animals. If they show a safety and a good immune response, then, they start to be tested in human beings. However, there a steps to do so. The first group is very small and all the integrants are healthy. If the results are still positive, then they start to expand to bigger groups of people and more diverse people, that have different diseases. On this stage, the researchers start to measure how safe is the product and which are the most effective doses.
How long is going to take?
We still don’t know for sure, because no one knows if these researchers are really going to work, but we can say that things are going really fast. Until now, the vaccine against measles has the record of the fastest one, and it took ten years to be developed and shared.
However, if we look in the bigger picture, be also have the hindrance of the mass production. Most of the studies are being financed by a company, will they have the structure to share their discovery with the whole world? Therefore, if you can, please stay home and take care. The future is still very uncertain.
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The article above was edited by Laura Ferrazzano.
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