Today we are back discussing vaccine strategies against SARS-CoV-2. Amazing thread created by @RvSQusqdJHt1fpm and @HuiyingLi12 @03Sp1 @UniFreiburg #onlinelearning #onlineteaching #COVID__19 #vaccine Do you want to know more about Vaccines? https://twitter.com/CIBSS_UniFR/status/1255553604947267584?s=20

There are several possibilities to generate vaccine against coronavirus. Some strategies were already used in previous outbreaks of SARS-CoV in 2003. Companies and research institutes all over the world are speeding up to generate vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.

Many vaccine projects have already made it to vaccine development step 4, which is testing on human volunteers.

RNA vaccines contains the genetic information for the whole or parts of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. This information is given as ribonucleic acid (RNA), which can be translated in human cell, which will produce the protein and hopefully, an effective immume response.

The Paul Ehrlich Institute, Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Drugs, has approved the first clinical trial of a RNA vaccine against COVID-19. This vaccine is being developed by the German Biotechnology company BioNTech @BioNTech_Group

The human trail of this vaccine has already begun, 200 healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years old are being tested with this RNA vaccine.

Live attenuated vaccines use an attenuated or inactivated virus. A live attenuated vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 is currently being developed by the Chinese Military Medical Research Institute which cooperates with a biotech company called CanSino Biologics @CanSinoBiologic

In the first trial in humans, it was found that the vaccine may cause adverse reactions such as fever, pain and joint pain, but it usually recovers within 24 hours. The vaccine will soon step into phase II trial.

Vector vaccines are made by a chemically weakened virus (vector virus) transporting pieces of the pathogenic virus (in this case SARS-CoV-2) in order to stimulate an immune response. Commonly used vector are adenoviral vector and lentiviral vector.

There are several institutes and companies studying vector vaccines such as biotechnology company AstraZeneca @AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Want to know more? https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1263416139742351360?s=20

Recombinant protein vaccine (S-protein based vaccine), this type of vaccine basically use a protein-antigen from a given pathogen to activate immune response and to generate a memory immune response.

The vaccine company Novavax @Novavax
developed a recombinant protein vaccine, which contains recombinant spike protein nanoparticles. The testing stage is now in human trials. Read more at https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1265032425907851270?s=20

Advantages and disadvantages of different vaccine types: