V3 Moving Towards Rapid COVID Vaccine Development
Ending COVID
Evaluating The Feasibility for Rapid Vaccine Design & Development
The ability of a virus to achieve pandemic spread is diminished by establishing higher levels of community (herd) immunity. A key question is whether protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome–Co-V- 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will happen by widespread deployment of an effective vaccine or by repeated waves of infection over the next few years until upwards of ∼60 to 70% of the population develop immunity. How this immunity will be achieved is a critical question in ending the current public concern regarding COVID, which appears to be declining.
The target of the vaccine is the first area to look at when designing a vaccine, for any vaccine intended to generate antibody-mediated immunity, delivering a conformationally correct protein is critical. In the following posts, the evaluation of a series of various targets will be discussed. The first to consider is the spike protein for SARS-CoV-2. The CoV spike protein is displayed on the surface of the virus and carries out viral entry allowing for infection. It accomplishes this by undergoing a massive rearrangement that pulls the virus and cell membranes together and fuses them, prevention is key. The design will focus on a vaccine formulation and delivery which can also be crafted to influence T cell functions and response patterns of the innate immune system. Gene-based delivery can induce CD8+ T cells and generally drive a CD4+ T helper 1 cell (TH1)–type immune response, which has favorable antiviral properties reducing the impact. Which leads to the formation of a positive immune response targeted towards achieving the formation of the correct antibodies, and a natural defense.
The first step was to demonstrate the potential for vaccine efficacy in early-phase clinical studies by measuring the induction of neutralizing antibodies. This was first established in animal models by demonstrating protection against virus replication and disease, then next in trials, which are ongoing. Equally important will be using conformationally correct antigens to elicit high-quality, functionally relevant antibodies and to avoid induction of non-neutralizing antibodies and TH2-biased immune responses. Using limiting dilutions of vaccines and examining lung pathology in animals with breakthrough infection will also be a feasible option to obtain information. New manufacturing platforms, such as structure-based antigen design, computational biology, protein engineering, and gene synthesis have provided the tools to now make vaccines with speed and precision allowing mass production of vaccines for large populations. Recombinant vaccine vectors and nucleic acid vaccines are best suited for speed because they can be more easily adapted to platform manufacturing technologies in which upstream supply chains and downstream processes are the same for each product, improving the chances of efficacy and safety, the key issue.
Historically vaccine development is usually measured in decades, so having access to approved COVID vaccines available for large-scale distribution before the end of 2020 or even 2021 (for the next viral cycle), is expected. As the worldwide population moves towards achieving herd immunity towards COVID.
Rapid COVID-19 vaccine development | Science (sciencemag.org)