Overview of COVID-19 Vaccine Development Strategy

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the cause of coronavirus disease 20019 (COVID19) pandemic which first emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan city, China. Currently, a vaccine is urgently needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Several vaccine candidates are under development and some are in the final stage of clinical trials. The COVID-19 vaccination aims to reduce morbidity and mortality rates, achieve herd immunity to prevent and protect the society, strengthen the health system, maintain productivity and minimize social and economic impacts. Before approval, vaccines have to undergo several clinical trials to ensure its safety profile, efficacy, duration of immune system resistance, and adverse effect. Various strategies have been used in the development of vaccines including viral vector vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, inactivated virus, live attenuated virus, subunit protein¸and virus-like particle vaccine. Each strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages.

COVID-19 Vaccines: An Updated Overview of Different Platforms

“…PS-based vaccines are gaining popularity due to their ability to elicit stronger immune responses based on neutralizing antibodies using only immunodominant epitopes rather than larger viral proteins or whole inactivated virus [ 11 ]. The absence of serious side effects is one of the benefits of vaccines on this platform [ 12 ]. COVID-19 vaccine protein subunits do not contain live viruses; thus, they cannot cause infection [ 13 ].…”

“…Disadvantages include the need for revaccination, as well as the use of booster doses to maintain a stronger and longer immune response. Another disadvantage is that the vaccine’s effect is dependent on the adjuvant [ 12 ].…”