How does the Sputnik V Vaccine Work - THREAD

So we've already assessed how the Pfizer vaccine works. It's almost identical to the Moderna vaccine. Both are mRNA vaccines transported in a lipid nanoparticle to target cells. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine works differently!

The Sputnik V vaccine uses a modified non-infectious virus called an adenovirus to infect target cells. We've spoken previously about how viruses work. However, we only looked at RNA viruses such as COVID. An adenovirus differs because it contains DNA.
https://twitter.com/SimplyBiochem/status/1327703749759012864?s=20

This DNA would encode for the spike protein of COVID-19. It would enter target cells nuclei and be transcribed into mRNA. This mRNA would then be used to produce the spike protein. The schematic below is from the Sputnik V website. Like the others, you'd require 2 dosages.

Adenoviruses have a unique ability to infect a lot of cell types, so it's likely that they will be modified to only infect certain target cells. The DNA does not integrate into the host cell's DNA. It remains separate & doesn't replicate. You won't end up looking like this guy.

The major differences between the Sputnik V and Moderna/Pfizer vaccines are the genetic material and the method of transport. They are summarised in this table!

I hope you enjoyed that thread! Let us know if you want the resources we used to produce this. Tomorrow we'll look at the pros and cons of adenoviral based vaccination. See you then!