Current advancements and future prospects of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics: a narrative review

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has made a global impact on the daily lives of humanity, devastating health systems, and cataclysmically affecting the world’s economy. Currently, the Standard Public Health Protective practices consist of but are not limited to wearing masks, social distancing, isolating sick and exposed people, and contact tracing. Scientists around the globe undertook swift scientific efforts to develop safe and effective therapeutics and vaccines to combat COVID-19. Presently, as of mid-March 2022, 57.05% of the world population have been fully vaccinated, and 65.3% of the United States of America’s (USA) total population have been fully vaccinated while 76.7% have received at least one dose of the vaccine. This article explores the various vaccines created through modern science and technology, including their safety, efficacy, and mechanism of action. Although the vaccines produced are up to 95.0% efficacious, their efficacy wanes over time, underscoring the need for booster doses. Also, vaccination has not been able to prevent “breakthrough” infections. The limitations of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines indicate that further measures are required to ensure a firm control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of certain therapeutic agents because they have shown remarkable clinical outcomes. Several therapeutic agents for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 include Gilead’s remdesivir, Regeneron’s casirivimab and imdevimab combination, Eli Lilly’s baricitinib and remdesivir combination, Pfizer’s co-packaged nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, and Merck’s molnupiravir capsules. Hence concerted efforts in early and accurate diagnosis, education on the COVID-19 virulence, transmission and preventive measures, global vaccination, and therapeutic agents could bring this COVID-19 pandemic under control across the globe.

Nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir in COVID-19: a profile of its use

“…Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first appeared in late 2019 and was quickly declared a global pandemic [ 1 ]. Despite the rapid development and authorisation of numerous COVID-19 vaccines, increasing rates of breakthrough infection due to waning vaccine efficacy and the emergence of new variants of concern have necessitated the use of further measures to control the pandemic, including booster doses and the development of several therapeutic agents [ 2 ]. Some treatments are only recommended for use in patients who are at high risk of progression to severe COVID-19 (e.g.…”

Dissecting CD8+ T cell pathology of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection by single-cell immunoprofiling

“…6 knots were used for the NB-GAM (Figure S4A is referred to for a visualization of the knots projected onto the integrated UMAP). Differential gene expression between the progenitor and differentiated cell populations was performed with startVsEndTest using l2fc = log 2 (2). The significant genes from the test were modeled with predictSmooth using nPoints = 50 and visualized with pheatmap.…”

“…To characterize potential early drivers of differentiation towards the two trajectories, earlyDETest was used at the bifurcation point (between knots 2 and 3) with l2fc = log 2 (1.5). Differential gene expression between the end stages of the lineages was performed with diffEndTest using l2fc = log 2 (2). Temporal differential expression between the mild and severe conditions for each lineage was computed with conditionTest using l2fc = log 2 (2), global = TRUE, and pairwise = TRUE.…”

“…According to the WHO Coronavirus Dashboard there have been more than 590 million confirmed cases and more than 6.4 million deaths due to COVID-19 so far (August 2022) (1). Although some pharmacological therapeutic options are available today (2), the molecular mechanisms that drive the progression to a severe disease condition remain largely unknown, making vaccination an important instrument to prevent the occurrence of a life-threatening scenario. However, despite vaccine efficacy, particularly in preventing severe COVID-19 (3,4), breakthrough infections occur repeatedly (5) and can result in severe disease (6)(7)(8) as well as serious long-term health consequences (9).…”

Use of a Preclinical Natural Transmission Model to Study Antiviral Effects of a Carbohydrate-Binding Module Therapy against SARS-CoV-2 in Hamsters

“…The development of vaccines has provided an immense contribution, but case levels remain stubbornly high. The limitations of vaccines include efficacy waning over time, underscoring the requirement for booster doses, and breakthrough infections, including the emergence of multiple variants that reduce vaccine effectiveness [ 1 , 2 ]. The need for effective therapies remains a cornerstone in the ability to bring the pandemic under control and contribute to an arsenal of countermeasures against the virus.…”