Why does who say it is possible to have a coronavirus vaccine after 18 months?

February 21, 2020 / BIOON / -- it may take another 18 months to develop a vaccine against coronavirus, the World Health Organization said this week Let's explore why it might take so long, even with a global effort In the first half of January, China released the full RNA sequence of the virus - now known as sars-cov-2, rather than covid-19, which refers to the disease itself This has led to efforts to develop vaccines around the world, including at the University of Queensland and institutions in the United States and Europe By the end of January, the Doherty Institute in Melbourne had successfully bred the virus outside China for the first time, a crucial step This is the first time researchers in other countries have obtained live virus samples Using these samples, researchers at the Australian animal health laboratory in Keelung can begin to understand the characteristics of the virus, another key step in a global effort to develop a vaccine Historically, it took two to five years to develop a vaccine But with global efforts and lessons learned from past efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine, it is possible for researchers to develop a vaccine in a shorter period of time Photo source: shutterstock why do we need cooperation? No single agency has the capacity or facility to develop vaccines on its own There are more stages in the process than many people think First of all, we must understand the characteristics and behaviors of the virus in the host (human) Therefore, we must first establish an animal model Next, we have to prove that the potential vaccine is safe and can trigger the right part of the body's immune system without causing harm Then, we can use animal models to start preclinical animal trials of potential vaccines Vaccines that have successfully passed preclinical testing can be used by other institutions capable of conducting human trials Where and by whom these actions will take place remains to be determined In general, it is ideal to test these vaccines in the current outbreak environment Finally, if a vaccine is found to be safe and effective, it will require the necessary regulatory approval Before the final vaccine is ready for delivery, a cost-effective vaccine production method is also needed Every step in the vaccine development process faces potential challenges Here are some of the challenges we face: the International Alliance for innovation in epidemic prevention involved our team in the first two steps: identifying the characteristics of the current virus, and then conducting preclinical tests on potential vaccines Although the novel coronavirus is being isolated by the Doherty Institute and other institutions in Melbourne, our next step is to train a large number of viruses so that our scientists will have enough work to do This includes culturing the virus in the laboratory, under particularly safe and sterile conditions The next challenge we face is to develop and validate the correct biological model of virus This will be an animal model, providing clues for us to understand the behavior of coronavirus in humans Photo source: shutterstock our previous work on SARS has laid a good foundation for us SARS is another member of the coronavirus family that spread in 2002-03 Our scientists developed a biological model of SARS, using ferrets to identify the original host of the virus: bats SARS and the new SARS cov-2 share about 80-90% of the genetic code Novel coronavirus can be used as a starting point for the study of new coronavirus Therefore, our experience with SARS means that we can be optimistic that our existing ferret model can be used as a starting point for the study of new coronavirus We will also explore other biological models to provide more reliable data and contingency measures If the virus mutates, what's the use of the vaccine? In addition, sars-cov-2 is likely to continue to mutate As an animal virus, it may have mutated in the process of adaptation - first to another animal, then from one animal to humans Initially, it did not spread among people, but now it has started an important step of continuous human to human transmission As the virus continues to infect humans, it is undergoing a stable process, which is part of the mutation process For various reasons, this mutation process may even change in different parts of the world This includes population density, which affects the number of people infected and the chance of the virus mutating Previous exposure to other coronaviruses may also affect people's susceptibility to infection, which may lead to the emergence of different strains, much like seasonal influenza So it's crucial that we continue to work with one of the latest versions of the virus to maximize the chance that the vaccine will work All of this work needs to be carried out in strict quality and safety conditions to ensure that it meets the requirements of global legislation and to ensure the safety of staff and the wider community Photo source: David S goodsell another challenge is how to make proteins from viruses to develop potential vaccines These proteins are specifically designed to trigger an immune response when used, allowing the immune system to prevent future infections Fortunately, recent progress in understanding viral proteins and their structures and functions has led to considerable progress worldwide It is a difficult task to develop vaccine, which can not be accomplished overnight But if everything goes according to plan, it will be much faster than we have seen before During the outbreak of SARS, we learned many lessons The knowledge gained by the global scientific community from the development of SARS vaccine makes us a step ahead in the development of vaccine for this virus Reference: [1] here's why the WHO says a coronavirus vaccine is 18 months away [2] when will there be a coronavirus vaccine? 5 questions answered
【3】 Update： 'A bit chaotic.' Christening of new coronavirus and its disease name create confusion