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COVID-19 immunity and vaccines: what a pharmacist needs to know Cover

COVID-19 immunity and vaccines: what a pharmacist needs to know

Asian Biomedicine
Volume 15 (2021): Issue 2 (April 2021)
By: Rula M. Darwish  
Open Access
|Apr 2021

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Different stages of clinical trials for conventional vaccines by comparison with COVID-19 vaccines.
Different stages of clinical trials for conventional vaccines by comparison with COVID-19 vaccines.

Figure 2

Adaptive immune response produced by SARS-CoV-2 (reproduced from Ref. [13] with permission). AG, antigen; APC, antigen-presenting cell; CTL, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; TCR, T-cell receptor; TGF, transforming growth factor.
Adaptive immune response produced by SARS-CoV-2 (reproduced from Ref. [13] with permission). AG, antigen; APC, antigen-presenting cell; CTL, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; TCR, T-cell receptor; TGF, transforming growth factor.

Figure 3

Stages of vaccine development.
Stages of vaccine development.

Advantages and disadvantages of various vaccine platforms, selected vaccines that have entered Phases 3 and 4, their developers, route of administration, and the number of doses required to induce the required immune response

Vaccine platform descriptionAdvantagesDisadvantagesDevelopersType of candidate vaccineRoute of administrationNumber of dosesPhase
Inactivated virus

  • The pathogen is inactivated

  • Easy transport and storage

  • Pathogen needs to be processed in large quantities

  • The antigen immunogenicity can be affected by the inactivation process

  • Antibody titers reduce over time

  • Do not produce cellular responses Needseveral booster doses

Sinovac Research and DevelopmentCoronaVac; Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccine [7, 74]IM24
Sinopharm + China National Biotec Group + Wuhan Institute of Biological ProductsInactivated SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccine [7, 72]IM23
Sinopharm + China National Biotec Group + Beijing Institute of Biological ProductsInactivated SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccine (Vero cells), BBIBP-CorV [7, 71, 72]IM23
Institute of Medical Biology + Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesInactivated SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccine (Vero cells) [7]IM23
Bharat Biotech International LimitedWhole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccine, BBV152 (Covaxin) [7]IM23
Viral vector (nonreplicating)

  • Able to induce robust humoral and cellular responses with a single dose

  • Good safety profile

  • Some of the candidates require storage at ≤20 °C

  • Preexisting immunity against a human viral vector can affect the immune responses

AstraZeneca + University of OxfordChAdOx1-S (AZD1222) Covishield [7, 41]IM1–24
CanSino Biological/Beijing Institute of BiotechnologyRecombinant COVID-19 vaccine (adenovirus type 5 vector) [7, 76]IM13
Gamaleya Research Institute; Health Ministry of the Russian FederationGam-COVID-Vac Adeno-based (rAd26-S + rAd5-S) [7, 74]IM23
(J&J) Janssen PharmaceuticalsAd26.COV2.S [7, 78, 79]IM1–23
Protein subunit

  • Safety during production

  • Can be safely administered to immuno-suppressed people

  • No infectious agent handling is required

  • Small size of antigens diminishes their uptake by APCsa

  • Several booster doses and adjuvants are needed

  • Integrity of the antigen needs to be confirmed

  • Low immunogenicity

  • Do not elicit cellular responses.

  • The production is limited by antigen production scalability.

NovavaxSARS-CoV-2 rS/Matrix M1-Adjuvant (full-length recombinant SARS CoV-2 glycoprotein nanoparticle vaccine adjuvanted with matrix M) [7]IM23
Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical + Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesRecombinant COVID-19 vaccine [7, 74]IM2–33
Sanofi Pasteur + GSKVAT00002: COVID-19 vaccine formulation 1 with adjuvant 1 (S protein (baculovirus production) [7, 74]IM23
Instituto Finlay de VacunasFINLAY-FR-2 anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (RBD conjugated to tetanus toxoid plus adjuvant) [7]IM23
Federal Budgetary Research Institution State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology “Vector”EpiVacCorona (EpiVacCorona vaccine based on peptide antigens [7]IM23
RNA based vaccine

  • High scalability

  • Quick design and development

  • No infectious agent handling is required

  • Caninduce cellular and humoral responses

  • mRNA vaccines display instability and need storage at ≤20 °C

  • DNA vaccines require a special delivery platform

Moderna + National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)mRNA-1273 [7, 79, 80, 81]IM24
Pfizer/BioNTech + Fosun PharmaBNT162 [7, 79, 82, 83, 84]IM24
CureVacCVnCoV vaccine [7]IM23
DNA-based vaccine Zydus CadilaCOVID-19 vaccine [7]ID33
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abm-2021-0008 | Journal eISSN: 1875-855X | Journal ISSN: 1905-7415
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Language: English
Page range: 51 - 67
Published on: Apr 30, 2021
Published by: Chulalongkorn University
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 6 issues per year
Keywords:
COVID-19,
coronavirus,
pharmacist,
SARS-CoV-2,
vaccines
Related subjects:
Medicine,
Assistive professions, nursing,
Basic medical science,
Basic medical science, other,
Clinical medicine,
Clinical medicine, other

© 2021 Rula M. Darwish, published by Chulalongkorn University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

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