Coronavirus vaccine, questions and answers. At what stage is the experimentation? – Chronicle

Rome, September 9, 2020 – When are the tests for the coronavirus vaccine? Between doubts and hopes, there are currently 5 drugs tested in humans. Today the news that Astrazeneca has temporarily stopped the tests on the prototype developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, after the “anomalous reaction” found in one of the volunteers.

Cards edited by Alessandro Malpelo

How many serums are in development?

“The World Health Organization has counted 320 different vaccines in development in laboratories around the world, but only thirty have reached the clinical trial stage and five have started Phase 3, which will really tell us how effective it is in humans. “. Rino Rappuoli, The scientific director and head of external research and development at GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines of Siena takes stock of the race for the antidote that should protect the population from the scourge of Covid-19. In November, the results of the volunteers who are already going through the campaign that will enlist at least thirty thousand people are expected and in early 2021 we will know if they really work ”. Six are the ‘guinea pigs’ of the Italian vaccine produced by the ReiThera of Castel Romano at the Borgo Roma Hospital in Verona. They range from an 18-year-old student to a 54-year-old physician, who follow the four pioneers of Spallanzani of Rome, the first to test the effectiveness of Grad-Cov2 on your skin. “The debut bodes well: the analyzes carried out in the first days of the vaccinated subjects highlighted the almost total absence of contraindications,” said Stefano Milleri, director of the Center for Clinical Research at the Venice hospital. ”

Which vaccine has the most advanced technology?

“The RNA vaccine – explains Rappuoli – uses a futuristic technique that in normal times would have been developed in ten years and instead received a forced acceleration due to the pandemic and could already be available by the end of the year. Clinical trials 1 and 2 have been promising but caution is needed as it is an RNA sequence synthesized in the laboratory and then injected to induce the cells of the human body to produce a protein similar to that of the virus to fight, multiplying the antibodies assets and immune response “.

On what principles is the Italian style based?

The prototype developed in Oxford, flanked by the Advent division of the Italian IRBM and which is already being tested in humans, but also adopted by Russia and China, aims to prevent infection with a mechanism that involves the introduction of a DNA fragment. synthesized in the laboratory in the serum-vector which in turn must induce the desired immune response to make man unassailable by Sars-Cov2 “.

What is the protein vaccine?

“It is the most traditional that we are developing in synergy with Sanofi and that allows the production of large quantities of dose. Using the RNA sequence of the virus, proteins or protein fragments of the structure that enclose the virus nucleic acid are synthesized. They are then enriched with an adjuvant that makes them stronger and inoculated to trigger the antibody response. He was the last to reach the clinical phase, which he entered in recent days, but now the journey will be accelerated by the already substantial experience accumulated over the years ”.

What method can defeat the pandemic?

“Opinions differ because imagining the production of 16 billion doses (on Earth there are eight billion but to achieve the desired effect you need one pair each) is utopian. Then reality will develop a model based on the priority of the doses. risk categories such as the elderly and health workers, we will try to contain the spread of the disease by gradually increasing the percentage of immunized until the ability of the ‘flock’ to resist the attack is reached. Validation takes place when the large group of volunteers involved in the experiment (at least thirty thousand people) will be much less exposed to infection than a group of the same entity that has not been treated. In addition to the effectiveness criterion, the validation is based on the safety one, because it is not enough to protect us but not to suffer side effects The three types, the three great families of vaccines under examination, are giving results so far It is now quite promising, but no one has been tested on millions of people, so care must be taken. ”