More than 24.85 million confirmed new coronavirus positive worldwide. How is the vaccine progressing?
On August 11, 2020, China's first new crown vaccine was
patented. This is no different from the current severe epidemic situation.
Although the domestic epidemic has basically stabilized, the number of
confirmed cases of new crown worldwide has exceeded 24.85 million. The new
crown vaccine is used as a way to defeat the virus. One of the powerful weapons
is the long-awaited hope of mankind. This article mainly introduces the essence
of the vaccine and the progress of the new crown vaccine research and development.
1. Understand the true face of vaccines
(1) Nature and classification of vaccines
Vaccines are biological products made from various materials derived from or derived from pathogenic microorganisms, while preventive vaccines are immunogenic, which guide the body to produce specific active immunity after inoculation to the human body to protect the human body from Biological agents for diseases caused by corresponding pathogens.
In order to
achieve the immune effect of the vaccine after vaccination, the vaccine must
have immunogenicity, safety and stability. Based on different viruses or viral
components, vaccines can be divided into viruses, viral vectors, nucleic acids,
and proteins.
The body's specific immune system can recognize newly invading pathogens
Coronavirus infection: The virus uses the surface spike
protein to anchor the ACE2 receptor on the surface of human cells. Once invaded
by a virus, these cells will produce viral RNA to produce more viruses.
Immune response: Specialized "antigen presenting cells" (APC) phagocytose the virus and express part of the virus structure to activate helper T cells. Helper T cells help initiate other immune responses.
B cells produce antibodies to prevent the virus from infecting other
cells, and at the same time mark the virus for further elimination. Cytotoxic T
cells recognize and eliminate virus-infected cells.
(2) Mechanism of vaccine action
After the vaccine enters the human body and is recognized, it is processed into antigenic information, and then transmitted to the effector cells through the participation of a variety of immune cells, and then produces specific antibodies and sensitized lymphocytes that can eliminate the corresponding pathogens in the human body, and finally protects the vaccination.
The purpose of protecting the person from infection by pathogens.
2. Insight into the vaccine development process
Taking inactivated vaccines as an example, the vaccine development steps are:
Firstly, screen for stable viral strains with good immunogenicity, prepare immune antigens, and then perform antigen inoculation animal experiments, usually using mice as the target of inoculation.
Observe various indicators, and then conduct animal challenge protection and safety experiments, that is, after the animals are inoculated with the vaccine antigen, they are then infected with the corresponding virus, and the safety of the animals after the vaccine is observed.
On the basis of animal experiments,
the new vaccine must undergo phase I, phase II, and phase III human clinical
trials to prove the safety and effectiveness of the product, and to further
prove the repeatability and stability of the vaccine production process.
Periodical test
The test population is generally 30-50 healthy volunteers, the phase II trial population is generally 200-500, and the phase III trial population is generally 2,000-10,000.
The verification of a larger sample size
proves its safety and effectiveness. Only then can they apply for production
qualification, and finally go public after going through the issuance process
of the national appraisal department.
The research and development of vaccines has a long cycle.
Usually, the research and development cycle of a new vaccine is 8-15 years, and
it takes at least several months for the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to be successfully
developed.
The development of new coronavirus vaccine
(1) Global cooperation to jointly respond to challenges
In June 2020, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands formed the "Vaccine Alliance", and the four major economies jointly explored vaccine research and development programs; countries in Latin America also reached a consensus on cooperating to jointly respond to the epidemic.
In Africa, there is also a The new crown vaccine has begun phase III clinical trials.
Uganda and the British Imperial College will also start clinical trials
in December. As of August 24, 2020, 172 countries and regions around the world
have joined the global vaccine plan. The goal is to provide at least 2 billion
doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine globally by the end of 2021.
(2) The new crown vaccine is highly anticipated
On January 24, 2020, the National Pathogenic Microorganism Resource Bank released relevant information about my country's first strain of new coronavirus and provided sharing services.
At the same time, many medical
institutions at home and abroad are actively researching the new crown vaccine,
and actively exploring in inactivated virus vaccines, protein vaccines,
recombinant virus vector vaccines and nucleic acid vaccines, and each has
achieved good expected results.
On March 16, 2020, the recombinant new crown vaccine of the Chen Wei team of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences was approved. It is the research institution that initiated the phase I clinical trial earlier.
On April 12, the team of Academician Chen Wei took the lead in launching Phase II clinical trials worldwide. On July 20, "The Lancet" reported the results of the phase II clinical trial of Chen Wei's team.
The test results showed that the vaccine was safe and could induce an immune response. The results of the trial became the world's first officially published phase II clinical trial data of the new crown vaccine.
On August 11, the State Intellectual
Property Office granted Chen Wei and other patent rights to the invention
patent application "a recombinant new coronavirus vaccine using human
replication-deficient adenovirus as a carrier", which became the first
approved new coronavirus vaccine patent in China.
In addition, among the 170 candidate vaccines in the world, 7 vaccines have entered the phase III clinical trial phase, of which 4 are from China.
In addition to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm Group's new coronavirus inactivated vaccine.
The new crown vaccine of Beijing Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm, and the vaccine of Beijing Kexing Zhongwei Biological Company all performed "bright."
Russia also announced the registration of the world's first new crown vaccine "Satellite V".
The vaccine arrived in medical institutions in late August. The first batch of vaccinations were medical workers and teachers. Two vaccines in the United States and Germany have also been approved for Phase III clinical trials.
Conquering the epidemic is inseparable from the support of
scientific power and the efforts of the people. I believe that if we are
united, we will surely win the battle against the epidemic!
Reference materials:
[1]Yang Zhaoqing, Ma Shaohui, Chu Jiayou. Ethics and
anticipation of clinical trials of new coronavirus vaccines in emergency
situations [J]. Science (Shanghai), 2020, 72(3): 35-39.
[2] Novel Coronavirus Vaccine Competition[J]. World Science,
2020, (6): closed 2-closed 3.
[3] Song Siyang, editor in chief, Introduction to Life
Sciences [M], Higher Education Press, 2004.09,280
[4] Lv Peng, Li Dengfeng, Liu Gang. Research progress on the
inflammatory mechanism of coronavirus and characteristics of vaccine
development [J]. Journal of Xiamen University (Natural Science Edition),
2020,59(3):347-353.
[5] 172 countries and regions have joined the global new
crown vaccine plan. China Economic Net, 2020.08.27
[6] The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
successfully isolated my country’s first strain of new coronavirus.
[7] The recombinant new crown vaccine was approved to start
clinical trials. Sina Finance, 2020.03.17
[8] The new coronavirus vaccine developed in China is the
first to enter Phase II clinical trials in the world. China News Network,
2020.04.14
[9] Chen Wei's team's Phase II clinical trial results of the
new crown vaccine: safe and can induce immune response. The Paper, 2020.07.20
[10] The patent application of the new crown vaccine by the
academician Chen Wei team has been authorized. Sina Technology, 2020.08.19
[11] The Global Vaccine Road | Who is the first to start on
the new crown vaccine development track? Who is leading temporarily? The
Paper, 2020.08.31
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| Dr. Shawna Reason |
Education: MBBS, MD
Occupation: Medical Doctor / Virologist
Specialization: Medical Science, Micro Biology / Virology, Natural Treatment
Experience: 15 Years as a Medical Practitioner
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