European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

WAYS OF MAKING EFFECTIVE AND SAFE VACCINES AGAINST SARS-CoV -2

Md. Selim Reza*, Farzana Mim, Dr. Mohammad Rezaul Quader,Dr. Mohammad Jahidur Rahman Khan, Md. Sabir Hossain, Kazi Rasel Uddin, Salina Akter and Dr. Sharmin Rahman

ABSTRACT

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by SARS–associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is another new type of coronavirus that causes the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has been the most challenging pandemic in this century. SARS-CoV-2 which is genetically similar to SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an enveloped, single and positive-stranded RNA virus. Considering its high mortality and rapid spread, an effective vaccine is urgently needed to control this pandemic. Vaccines, such as inactivated vaccines, attenuated vaccines, nucleic acid-based vaccines, and vector vaccines, which have already been demonstrated their prophylactic efficacy against MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, so these candidates could be used as a potential tool for the development of a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. The inactivated SARS-CoV vaccine may be the first one available for clinical use because it is easy to generate; however, safety is the main concern. The spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV is the major inducer of neutralizing antibodies, and the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the S1 subunit of S protein contains multiple conformational neutralizing epitopes. This suggests that recombinant proteins containing RBD and vectors encoding the RBD sequence can be used to develop safe and effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Keywords: Corona virus; Pandemic; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; MERS-CoV; Vaccine.