COVID 19 VACCINE AND TREATMENT
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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the late 2019.
The first outbreak happened in Wuhan City,China in form of increased Pneumonia cases. The alarm was first raised by the late neurosurgeon DR. Liu Zhimin, he succumbed to the same pandemic on 18th Feb 2020.
Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness. it was declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO on 30 January
No vaccine or treatment has been approved to be effective against covid 19 to date. But there is trial study being carried out by WHO with sponsorship of Oslo University Hospital in Norway to assess potential treatment of COVID 19 disease.It is called The SOLIDARITY trial. The study is comparing the safety and effectiveness of four therapy combinations against COVID-19, the trial started in march 26 and will run to November 2020. The trail involve testing of hydroxychloroquine(drug commonly used to treat malaria and rheumatism) , Remdesivir (produced by Gilead company) given independently and the combined in the Control group. and lastly combination of lapinavir and Ritonavir (drugs commonly used for HIV carriers)
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that around 74 countries had joined Solidarity trial.
Nearly all vaccines normally have basic principal, whereby a low dose of pathogen is injected in the body to prompt antibody production against that pathogen which are recorded in immune memory. when one is attacked by the same pathogen again, the antibodies will quickly be mobilized naturally to fight the pathogen. immunization has been achieved using live, weakened forms of the virus, or inactivated virus. it's risky using live virus because it may continue to evolve in the host and using inactivated forms requires higher and repeated doses. recent strategy – the one that Novavax is using, for example – constructs a “recombinant” vaccine. This involves extracting the genetic code for the protein spike on the surface of Sars-CoV-2, which is the part of the virus most likely to provoke an immune reaction in humans, and pasting it into the genome of a bacterium or yeast – forcing these microorganisms to churn out large quantities of the protein. Other approaches, even newer, bypass the protein and build vaccines from the genetic instruction itself. This is the case for Moderna and another company which has a presence in Boston, CureVac, both of which are building Covid-19 vaccines out of messenger RNA. more than 40 companies and academic institutions are racing to create such a vaccine, at least four of which already have candidates they have been testing in animals. The first of these – produced by Boston-based biotech firm Moderna started their clinical trial on 16th march. The study takes more than a year, where once proved that the experimental vaccine is safe, 45 people are innoculate 2 doses 28 days apart and monitored for a year. Moderna skipped animal testing stage.
Clinical trials, an essential precursor to regulatory approval, usually take place in three phases. The first, involving a few dozen healthy volunteers, tests the vaccine for safety, monitoring for adverse effects. The second, involving several hundred people, usually in a part of the world affected by the disease, looks at how effective the vaccine is, and the third does the same in several thousand people.
Ethiopia is also developing COVID 19 drugs using herbal medicine. According to the statement issued by ministry of health and ministry of innovation and technology in a joint presser, the drug has passed through basic research procedures and was successful in the laboratory modelling processes. And it is heading to clinical trials.
Novavax is using a nanoparticle technology platform to generate antigens from the protein found on the spiky outer shell of the coronavirus. Several candidates are being tested in animal trials, with Phase 1 testing expected in the next month or two.
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Brisban(Australia) are using a patented vaccine-development technique called a ‘molecular clamp'. They first create a synthetic version of the 'spike' protein that covers the virus, as this can trigger an immune response in the human body. They then attach a 'clamp' onto this synthetic protein to ensures it remains stable enough to trigger antibodies (the protein would normally denature in the human body). The researchers expect to start human trials in July.
The speed of vaccine production said be because of early Chinese efforts to sequence the genetic material of Sars-CoV-2 . China shared that sequence in early January, allowing research groups around the world to grow the live virus and study how it invades human cells and makes people sick.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that around 74 countries had joined Solidarity trial.
Nearly all vaccines normally have basic principal, whereby a low dose of pathogen is injected in the body to prompt antibody production against that pathogen which are recorded in immune memory. when one is attacked by the same pathogen again, the antibodies will quickly be mobilized naturally to fight the pathogen. immunization has been achieved using live, weakened forms of the virus, or inactivated virus. it's risky using live virus because it may continue to evolve in the host and using inactivated forms requires higher and repeated doses. recent strategy – the one that Novavax is using, for example – constructs a “recombinant” vaccine. This involves extracting the genetic code for the protein spike on the surface of Sars-CoV-2, which is the part of the virus most likely to provoke an immune reaction in humans, and pasting it into the genome of a bacterium or yeast – forcing these microorganisms to churn out large quantities of the protein. Other approaches, even newer, bypass the protein and build vaccines from the genetic instruction itself. This is the case for Moderna and another company which has a presence in Boston, CureVac, both of which are building Covid-19 vaccines out of messenger RNA. more than 40 companies and academic institutions are racing to create such a vaccine, at least four of which already have candidates they have been testing in animals. The first of these – produced by Boston-based biotech firm Moderna started their clinical trial on 16th march. The study takes more than a year, where once proved that the experimental vaccine is safe, 45 people are innoculate 2 doses 28 days apart and monitored for a year. Moderna skipped animal testing stage.
Clinical trials, an essential precursor to regulatory approval, usually take place in three phases. The first, involving a few dozen healthy volunteers, tests the vaccine for safety, monitoring for adverse effects. The second, involving several hundred people, usually in a part of the world affected by the disease, looks at how effective the vaccine is, and the third does the same in several thousand people.
Ethiopia is also developing COVID 19 drugs using herbal medicine. According to the statement issued by ministry of health and ministry of innovation and technology in a joint presser, the drug has passed through basic research procedures and was successful in the laboratory modelling processes. And it is heading to clinical trials.
The other vaccine candidate currently in Phase 1 trials is Ad5-nCoV by Cansino Biologics Inc(Tianjin,China), which uses a harmless non-replicating viral vector to carry vaccine antigens into the human cell. The same technology they used for its Ebola vaccine. The vaccine was jointly developed with the Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences. The clinical trial will enroll 108 subjects and take place at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, where the COVID-19 pandemic began. The vaccine has been tested on animals and shown to be safe and trigger an immune response.
INovio (company in USA) is planning to put its INO-4800 DNA vaccine into human trials in April. It is so far the only company with a Phase 2 vaccine against the related MERS-CoV. The company plans to start human clinical trials in the USA, and shortly after in China and South Korea.
BioNTech (company in Germany), working together with Pfizer, plans to start testing its BNT162 vaccine in humans in late April in global trials with study sites in Europe (Germany to start off with), the USA and China.
The ChAdOx1 developed by the University of Oxford is due to be tested in human clinical trials next months. The team will also start animal trials next week at the Public Health England (PHE) laboratory in the UK, though these may not be entirely complete before the human trials start, because of the urgency of stopping the pandemic. scientists will check whether the vaccine can prevent the virus from spreading in the body.
Novavax is using a nanoparticle technology platform to generate antigens from the protein found on the spiky outer shell of the coronavirus. Several candidates are being tested in animal trials, with Phase 1 testing expected in the next month or two.
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Brisban(Australia) are using a patented vaccine-development technique called a ‘molecular clamp'. They first create a synthetic version of the 'spike' protein that covers the virus, as this can trigger an immune response in the human body. They then attach a 'clamp' onto this synthetic protein to ensures it remains stable enough to trigger antibodies (the protein would normally denature in the human body). The researchers expect to start human trials in July.
The speed of vaccine production said be because of early Chinese efforts to sequence the genetic material of Sars-CoV-2 . China shared that sequence in early January, allowing research groups around the world to grow the live virus and study how it invades human cells and makes people sick.
And partly due to preparedness of the vaccinologists who had come up with possible prototypes pathogens of coronavirus after previous attacks by SARS and MERS. This was confirmed by Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Oslo-based nonprofit the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi) by the guardian reports.
Global poll was conducted on the most effective drug of treating COVID 19 by Global health care polling company sermo, a poll which attracted 30 countries in South America, Australia and Europe. 6,227 physicians participated. and hydroxychloroquine was voted to be the most effective drug against coronavirus. the poll found out that 72 % of the physicians in Spain had prescribed it as compared with 23% in united states. as opposed to USA, other countries were also prescribing it to patients with mild symptoms.
Global poll was conducted on the most effective drug of treating COVID 19 by Global health care polling company sermo, a poll which attracted 30 countries in South America, Australia and Europe. 6,227 physicians participated. and hydroxychloroquine was voted to be the most effective drug against coronavirus. the poll found out that 72 % of the physicians in Spain had prescribed it as compared with 23% in united states. as opposed to USA, other countries were also prescribing it to patients with mild symptoms.
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