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Today, we hear about vaccines almost every day. At the moment, of course, these are coronavirus vaccines, but there are also many other vaccines that are also worth checking out for what you know.
The 550,000 doses that have just arrived in Hungary, the so-called vaccine made in China. It belongs to the group of complete viral vaccines. Unlike the existing and used Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines, these do not contain hereditary material, including RNA, but rather all of the coronavirus. However, there is no cause for concern, as the virus is destroyed, in a dormant state in technical terms, so it cannot reproduce or infect because of it.
Similarly, for example, the whole virus is included in the measles vaccine (therefore everyone in Hungary has been vaccinated since 1969), but it is not present in a destroyed form, but in a live and attenuated form (attenuated in technical language). Therefore, we have been vaccinating with whole virus vaccines for decades, and the effectiveness of such vaccines has been fully demonstrated. Therefore, there is no measles epidemic in Hungary, for example.
At the same time, it was hypothesized that whole virus vaccines would cause a more frequent vaccination reaction, such as a transient fever (which may not be a detrimental effect, it may only indicate immune activation, which is why the vaccine works) . of the body, a part of it that is key to controlling the pathogen would be enough. This is, for example, a protein called hemagglutinin for the flu and a spike protein for the coronavirus, at least as far as we know. However, experience shows that whole virus vaccines manufactured according to current technologies and standards do not cause more vaccination reactions than other vaccines, and the immune response they elicit may be stronger.
What about mutant viruses?
The problem is that a virus, or at least some of its components, mutate rapidly, a classic example of which is influenza, but this is also practically the case with the coronavirus, where there are countless known and presumably more unknown mutations at the peak. . protein that will eventually avoid the effects of vaccines that rely solely on antibodies against the spike protein. We have seen more or less this, or at least a sign of this, about the AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa. However, the virus has many more protein molecules than this, number 29. With vaccines that contain the complete virus, all this reaches our bodies, so in principle, the production of antibodies can begin not only against one , but against various proteins. Therefore, if the mutated spike protein is no longer affected by the antibody produced in our body, in principle we can still have antibodies against the other slower mutating proteins.
Okay, but why doesn’t everyone do it?
There are two reasons for this in the present case. For one, it is difficult to spread viruses on a large scale and there can be many problems. It is easier to produce large amounts of vaccine if it is not necessary to spread the virus. The other reason may be even more prosaic. To work with a new type of coronavirus (officially known as SARS-CoV-2), the so-called biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) classified laboratory is required. Keeping it is primarily a public company, it would not be worth it for private pharmaceutical companies to build and maintain one. As a result, it is not very possible to produce a complete viral vaccine against Covid-19 in this way.
In China, however, the situation is different due to the specific intertwining of the public sector and, in terms there, of the private sector. Sinopharm will almost certainly have access to state-of-the-art BSL-3 rated laboratories, so they will have no trouble developing a vaccine that contains the full virus. We can expect similar technology from the Hungarian vaccine currently under development, which has the additional advantage that a virus isolated in Hungary will be included, in contrast to other vaccines imported from abroad.
Another positive feature of the Chinese vaccine is that it does not require freezing like Moderna, especially not -70 degree deep freezing like the Pfizer vaccine during transport and storage. As much as forward As we prepare for this, problems are practically inevitable, as we have been doing in the vaccination campaign ever since. various examples It was also.
The author is an allergist and clinical immunologist.
Top image: One of the coronavirus vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm, received this day, will be displayed at the logistics center of wholesale pharmaceutical company Hungaropharma in Budapest on February 16, 2021. – Photo: MTI / Márton Mónus
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