Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Italy.
Department of Gastroenterology, Endoscopy Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center IRCCS, Rozzano, Italy.
United European Gastroenterol J. 2021 Sep;9(7):787-796. doi: 10.1002/ueg2.12103. Epub 2021 Jun 8.
The novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has caused almost 2 million deaths worldwide. Both Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency have recently approved the first COVID-19 vaccines, and a few more are going to be approved soon.
Several different approaches have been used to stimulate the immune system in mounting a humoral response. As more traditional approaches are under investigation (inactivated virus vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, recombinant virus vaccines), more recent and innovative strategies have been tried (non-replicating viral vector vaccines, RNA based vaccines, DNA based vaccines).
Since vaccinations campaigns started in December 2020 in both the US and Europe, gastroenterologists will be one of the main sources of information regarding SARS-CoV 2 vaccination for patients in their practice, including vulnerable patients such as those with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), patients with chronic liver disease, and GI cancer patients.
Thus, we must ourselves be well educated and updated in order to provide unambiguous counseling to these categories of vulnerable patients. In this commentary, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of both approved COVID-19 vaccines and the ones still under development, and explore potential risks, benefits and prioritization of vaccination.
新型冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）已在全球范围内导致近 200 万人死亡。美国食品和药物管理局和欧洲药品管理局最近批准了第一种 COVID-19 疫苗，很快还将批准更多疫苗。
为了刺激免疫系统产生体液免疫反应，已经使用了几种不同的方法。在对更传统的方法（灭活病毒疫苗、蛋白亚单位疫苗、重组病毒疫苗）进行研究的同时，还尝试了更近期和创新的策略（非复制性病毒载体疫苗、基于 RNA 的疫苗、基于 DNA 的疫苗）。
自 2020 年 12 月在美国和欧洲开始疫苗接种活动以来，胃肠病学家将成为患者在其实践中有关 SARS-CoV-2 疫苗接种的主要信息来源之一，包括易受感染的患者，如炎症性肠病（IBD）患者、慢性肝病患者和胃肠道癌症患者。
因此，我们必须自己接受良好的教育和更新，以便为这些弱势群体提供明确的咨询。在本评论中，我们旨在全面回顾已批准的 COVID-19 疫苗和仍在开发中的疫苗，并探讨疫苗接种的潜在风险、益处和优先级。
