We have compiled 6 Covid-19 vaccine candidates. (flood)

Below this tweet, we will share vaccine candidates whose Phase-III trials have started in Covid-19 vaccine studies in different countries (America, Germany, China, India, England, Russia).

Enjoyable readings ..

#covid19

''The Race of Vaccine: China''

Our first candidate on the race of Covid-19 vaccine is China!

#scigether #togetherforscience #science #scientist #future #joinus #followus #networking #collaboration #research #biotech #genetics #biology #medicine #health #covid19 #vaccine

We have compiled that latest events on the development of China’s vaccine.

DOI: 10.1101/2020.07.31.20161216 (MedRxiv)
DOI: 10.1126/science.abc1932 (Science)
@sciencemagazine
@nature

For the first time, in April, it has been reported that one of the many COVID-19 vaccines in development is protecting rhesus macaques from disease infection.

This vaccine from Sinovac Biotech (Beijing-based company), CoronaVac, has an old-fashioned formulation consisting of a chemically inactivated version of the virus.

The company's researchers reported on May 6th on Science that eight monkeys were given two different doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Three weeks later, the coronavirus was introduced into the lungs of the monkeys through tracheal tubes, and none of them developed a complete infection and the monkeys who received the highest dose had the best immune response.

In contrast, control animals were found to develop high levels of viral RNA and severe pneumonia in various parts of the body.

These results are very promising by the researchers, and they are considered as highly important especially for low-middle-income countries to afford the vaccine.

Some authorities worry that the number of animals in the study was too small, and this could cause changes that would make the virus infecting humans less reflective. Another concern is that monkeys do not develop the most severe symptoms SARS-CoV-2 causes in humans.

Since a severe safety concern was not found in the phase I clinical trial with CoronaVac, a phase II clinical trial was commissioned with a total of 600 healthy adults aged 18-59.

As a result, it was observed that 2 different doses of vaccine with 2 times application into the participants were well tolerated and the participants were immune. Regarding safety, no dosing concerns were detected.

Moreover, there were no serious side effects associated with the vaccine, and most of the side effects reported were generally considered to be mild (such as pain at the injection site).

These results showed that CoronaVac was really well tolerated. CoronaVac is not the only vaccine that China is currently developing.

Sinopharm, a state-owned pharmaceutical company in Beijing, is working on two vaccines against the disease, made using inactivated coronavirus particles. The company said in June that both vaccines produced antibodies in all participants in preliminary phase I and II trials.

According to the Chinese vaccine law, the use of vaccines is allowed within a certain scope and time frame during a health emergency.

For this reason, the authorities prioritized the administration of the vaccine to the high-risk groups such as frontline healthcare professionals and customs officials.

In July, Sinopharm launched phase III trials for two vaccine candidates in the United Arab Emirates, according to New York Times vaccine tracking system data; one of the vaccines also began trials in Morocco and Peru in August.

Sinovac launched the phase III trials of CoronaVac in Brazil in July, and Indonesia has joined in August. Considering the public speculation about the emergence of the disease in China, the market where the vaccine will be applied is thought-provoking.

In fact, Sinovac is an experienced vaccine-maker -in the past, it has marketed inactivated viral vaccines for hand, foot and mouth diseases; such as hepatitis A and B (approved by the SFDA in 2002 and 2005, respectively), H5N1 influenza or bird flu.

However, Chinese vaccine manufacturers are likely to face other challenges.

Scientists say that the vaccines will likely be subject to further scrutiny, given the country's non-transparent regulatory system and previous vaccine scandals (Hundreds of thousands of children receiving defective diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines reported in 2018.

Chinese covid-19 vaccine candidate last ..

(We will continue with the UK vaccine candidate tomorrow..)

''The Race of Vaccine: UK''

The second candidate vaccine for Covid-19 is from UK!

Credit: @nature
DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.13.093195 (BioRxiv)
@statnews

#scigether #togetherforscience #science #scientist #future #joinus #followus #networking #collaboration #research #biotech

In the fight against Covid-19, England is among the countries participating in the vaccine development race.

Oxford University (United Kingdom) researchers, in collaboration with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, have managed to develop a ChAdOx1 vectored vaccine called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, which encodes the spike protein that the new coronavirus uses to invade host cells.

This vaccine is actually similar to the ChAdOx1 MERS approach, another vaccine the team has developed, which protects non-human primates against MERS-CoV-induced disease.

In this way, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, one of the nine coronavirus vaccines that entered the phase III trials in the vaccine race, has gained a significant advantage and it would not be wrong to say that it leads the race.

Researchers reported the first animal results of the vaccine at Biorxiv on May 13. The vaccine has been shown to be immunogenic in mice, eliciting a robust humoral and cell-mediated response.

When a single vaccination was given to 6 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) before the animals were given high doses of virus, all vaccinated monkeys were found to develop neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 that could prevent a virus from entering cells.

Much lower viral RNA levels was found in the lungs of the vaccinated animals than the unvaccinated ones, indicating that the vaccine stopped viral replication in the lungs of monkeys.

In addition, two out of three control monkeys developed pneumonia and none of the vaccinated monkeys had pneumonia, further strengthening hopes for the vaccine. Thus, the next phase studies were started.

The vaccine, whose phase I / II trials began in April, was evaluated in more than 1,000 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 55 years in a randomized controlled trial. A subgroup of these volunteers (10 people) received two doses of vaccine.

Between 23 April and 21 May 2020, 1077 volunteers received the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (also known as AZD1222) vaccine or a placebo MenACWY vaccine. According to the results published in July, about 60% of the participants who received the vaccine had side effects.

All side effects, including fever, headache, muscle pain, and injection site reactions, were considered mild or moderate. All reported side effects also decreased over time during the study follow-up. No serious health problems related to the vaccine were also observed.

Thereupon, it was decided to continue working with larger groups.

Phase II / III vaccine trials, which were previously initiated with the target of 10,000 participants in the UK in June, were proceeded with 5,000 volunteers from Brazil and 2,000 volunteers from South Africa in July.

Around 18,000 people worldwide have received the vaccine so far, according to the University of Oxford.

The phase III trials in the US aim to include nearly 30,000 participants in 80 different regions across the country, according to a statement from the National Institutes of Health in early September.

AstraZeneca also seems determined to fulfill its commitment to broad and equal access to the vaccine if the late-stage clinical trials succeed.

So far, commitments to provide more than 2 billion doses of vaccines have been signed with the UK, the USA, the Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance (IVA), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and Serum Institute of India.

However, the university and AstraZeneca announced that they paused the enrolment of vaccine candidates into global practice on September 6 after a participant from UK experienced a negative reaction.

While neither company nor university has made public information about the pause, it is reported that AstraZeneca's CEO Pascal Soriot told investors in a phone call last week that a person in the UK trial developed symptoms of transverse myelitis,

seen as inflammation of the spinal cord, which could be triggered by viruses. Scientists say that such a standstill is not unusual in such large trials, and the test is likely to be restarted quickly.

This situation shows that the necessary attention has been paid to vaccine trials. Some scientists criticized the study's sponsors for not providing more information about the reason for the pause and decision-making processes.

Indeed, officials in Brazil announced that vaccine trials resumed last week, but it is currently unclear when similar trials in South Africa and the United States could continue.

The researchers hope that research groups working on this or other coronavirus vaccines will share more information about clinical trials in the future.

When a vaccine is eventually made available, it is very important for the public to trust the vaccine and trust requires transparency in order to have the necessary impact on public health.

Our hope is to be able to see a similar transparency from all fields and to stop this epidemic for good.

UK covid-19 vaccine candidate last ..

(We will continue with the USA vaccine candidate..)

''The Race of Vaccine: USA''

The third candidate on the race of vaccine development is the US

Credit:
DOI: 10.1101/2020.07.30.227470
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2022483
https://www.jnj.com 
https://www.modernatx.com 

Developed in partnership with the US pharmaceutical company ModeRNA and NIH, the RNA-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate called "mRNA-1273" has moved to the phase-III trial. mRNA-1273, the first Covid-19 vaccine candidate tested on humans with 30,000 volunteers.

If the vaccine candidate from ModeRNA gives successful results, an mRNA-based vaccine will be licensed for the first time.

The first human application of the vaccine was made in phase-I stage on March 17, 2020. In phase-I trials, positive results were obtained, including in elderly people, that it causes the production of coronavirus antibodies, triggers the immune system, and is a safe vaccine.

It was announced that mRNA-1273 started phase-II clinical trials on April 27, 2020. If it is seen that the mRNA-1273 vaccine does not cause side effects in the phase-III trials launched on July 27 and positive responses are obtained,

it is expected to be approved by the FDA at the end of this year. It is stated that if the phase-III phase fails, those who question the decision to accelerate the mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate taken within the scope of Warp Speed ​​Operation* will be justified.

*Operation Warp Speed: A public-private partnership initiated by the Trump administration to facilitate and accelerate the development, production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

Also, skeptics of the respective vaccine candidate argue that, based on the bumpy history of mRNA-based vaccines, tricks may occur in the production of the mRNA-1273 vaccine.

Such question marks are expected to be resolved over time.

In the statement made by ModeRNA, it is stated that they have a daily production capacity of 500 million doses; it was also stated that they have the potential to produce 1 billion doses of vaccine annually after their agreement with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Lonza.

The US government ordered 100 million doses of vaccine to ModeRNA, and it was stated that a $1.5 billion payment would be made in return. In other words, a dose of the vaccine costs approximately 32 dollars.

In traditional vaccines, all of the virus (inactive virus) or all of the attenuated virus proteins are injected into the body. Such vaccines take a lot of time to develop.

However, in mRNA-1273 vaccine, unlike traditional methods, not the whole virus; SARS-CoV-2 particles (mRNA in this vaccine model) are delivered to the body within the lipid sheath.

SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins are produced in the ribosome organelle from the viral mRNA that is entered into the cell (Spike proteins are important for the entry of the virus into the cell. However, they are harmless for the body on their own.).

In this way, the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins are imitated. Immune system cells detect spike proteins and react as if infected by active SARS-CoV-2. As a result of this reaction, antibodies and various defense cells are produced.

Since the body is made to encounter virus particles beforehand, the immune system recognizes the virus in the next encounter.

Another vaccine supported by the USA is the Adenovirus 26 vector vaccine developed by Johnson&Johnson. It is stated that 60.000 volunteers will be included in the study for phase-III trials of the vaccine named Ad26-s.PP.

The vaccine, which will be tried in countries including the USA, Brazil, Chile, Philippines and South Africa, is planned to be ready in the first months of 2021.

USA covid-19 vaccine candidate last ..

(We will continue with the Russia vaccine candidate tomorrow..)