Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Department of Clinical Microbiology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana.
Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 Dec;144:112282. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2021.112282. Epub 2021 Oct 2.
Six months after the publication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequence, a record number of vaccine candidates were listed, and quite a number of them have since been approved for emergency use against the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This unprecedented pharmaceutical feat did not only show commitment, creativity and collaboration of the scientific community, but also provided a swift solution that prevented global healthcare system breakdown. Notwithstanding, the available data show that most of the approved COVID-19 vaccines protect only a proportion of recipients against severe disease but do not prevent clinical manifestation of COVID-19. There is therefore the need to probe further to establish whether these vaccines can induce sterilizing immunity, otherwise, COVID-19 vaccination would have to become a regular phenomenon. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants could further affect the capability of the available COVID-19 vaccines to prevent infection and protect recipients from a severe form of the disease. These notwithstanding, data about which vaccine(s), if any, can confer sterilizing immunity are unavailable. Here, we discuss the immune responses to viral infection with emphasis on COVID-19, and the specific adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and how it can be harnessed to develop COVID-19 vaccines capable of conferring sterilizing immunity. We further propose factors that could be considered in the development of COVID-19 vaccines capable of stimulating sterilizing immunity. Also, an old, but effective vaccine development technology that can be applied in the development of COVID-19 vaccines with sterilizing immunity potential is reviewed.
六个月后严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 （SARS-CoV-2）序列公布，创纪录数量的疫苗候选者被列出，此后相当数量的疫苗已被批准用于针对新型冠状病毒病 2019（COVID-19）的紧急使用。这一前所未有的制药壮举不仅展示了科学界的承诺、创造力和合作精神，还提供了一个迅速的解决方案，防止了全球医疗保健系统的崩溃。尽管如此，现有数据表明，大多数批准的 COVID-19 疫苗仅能保护一部分接种者免受严重疾病的侵害，但不能预防 COVID-19 的临床症状。因此，有必要进一步探究这些疫苗是否能诱导出杀菌性免疫，否则，COVID-19 疫苗接种将不得不成为一种常规现象。SARS-CoV-2 变体的出现可能会进一步影响现有 COVID-19 疫苗预防感染和保护接种者免受严重疾病的能力。尽管如此，关于哪种（哪些）疫苗如果有的话可以赋予杀菌性免疫的数据尚不可用。在这里，我们讨论了针对病毒感染的免疫反应，重点是 COVID-19，以及针对 SARS-CoV-2 的特定适应性免疫反应，以及如何利用它来开发能够赋予杀菌性免疫的 COVID-19 疫苗。我们进一步提出了在开发能够刺激杀菌性免疫的 COVID-19 疫苗时可以考虑的因素。此外，还回顾了一种古老但有效的疫苗开发技术，该技术可应用于开发具有杀菌性免疫潜力的 COVID-19 疫苗。
