Research progress on effectiveness and safety of approved coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines

Understanding COVID-19 Vaccines and Their Development.

Benifits outweigh the risks for patients with autoimmune disease (AID) in remission period to be vaccinated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. The mRNA vaccines, inactivated vaccines, and recombinant protein subunit vaccines are safe for AID patients, whereas the safety of recombinant adenovirus vector-based vaccines is still uncertain. Some drugs for the treatment of AID may reduce the immune response of the body to the COVID-19 vaccines and affect the immune efficacy of the vaccine, which may be related to the timing of vaccination. Based on several published relevant guidelines and recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccines in AID patients, this article elaborates on vaccination problems to be paid attention to in patients with AID treated with different drugs. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Patients with cancer are at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Institutions for disease control and prevention and cancer-related learned societies in many countries recommend prioritizing cancer patients for COVID-19 vaccines. All the COVID-19 vaccines currently approved for emergency use, including inactivated vaccines, mRNA vaccines, recombinant adenovirus vector-based vaccines, and recombinant protein subunit vaccines, can be applied in cancer patients. Cancer patients with stable disease can be vaccinated against COVID-19 at any time, while patients with advanced-stage cancer or undergoing anticancer therapy should decide on the timing of vaccination according to the specific situation such as treatment methods and cancer type, etc.. The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in cancer patients may outweigh the risks, but the immune response rate may be lower in cancer patients, especially in patients with haematological malignancies, than in healthy individuals. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Experts agree that reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is critical in controlling coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but decision makers disagree on how much testing is optimal. Controlling for interventions and ecological factors, we used linear regression to quantify testing's impact on COVID-19's average reproduction number, which represents transmissibility, in 173 countries and territories (which account for 99percent of the world's COVID-19 cases) during March-June2020. Among interventions, PCR testing had the greatest influence: a tenfold increase in the ratio of tests to new cases reported reduced the average reproduction number by 9percent across a range of testing levels. Our results imply that mobility reductions (for example, shelter-in-place orders) were less effective in developing countries than in developed countries. Our results help explain how some nations achieved near-elimination of COVID-19 and the failure of lockdowns to slow COVID-19 in others. Our findings suggest that the testing benchmarks used by the World Health Organization and other entities are insufficient for COVID-19 control. Increased testing and isolation may represent the most effective, least costly alternative in terms of money, economic growth, and human life for controlling COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious pathogenic viral infection caused by SARS-Cov-2. Coronavirus seems to have taken a popular role in the twenty-first century. The first instance of COVID-19 which was reported in Hubei province, Wuhan, China, has now spread to the entire world by human-to-human transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared this infectious disease as a pandemic. Currently this pandemic has created a global health crisis. In this chapter, we analysed the epidemiological characteristics, i.e. occurrence, distribution and transmission of disease in different countries, laboratory diagnosis, prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19. The main objective of this chapter is to provide the latest insights over nanotechnology and its implications in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control of COVID-19. In this direction, several emerging issues such as optical biosensor nanotechnology, respiratory masks, Nanofibers Membrane Technology, etc. We are in opinion that this chapter will provide useful insights towards understanding the role of nanotechniques to combat COVID-19.

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Government agencies or learned societies in many countries recommend prioritizing patients with CKD for COVID-19 vaccines. The immune response rate to the COVID-19 vaccines is lower in hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients compared with that in healthy individuals, and increasing the number of vaccinations each member of these population may improve their immune response rate. There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions after vaccination between patients with CKD and healthy controls. Patients with stable CKD should be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless there were contraindications to vaccination. The mRNA vaccines, inactivated vaccines, and recombinant protein subunit vaccines are all safe for patients with CKD. Patients with CKD treated with rituximab or high-dose glucocorticoid need to weigh the benefits and risks before vaccination, and COVID-19 vaccines can be given when rituximab treatment ends for more than 6 months or after glucocorticoid reduction. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Quo Vadis, COVID-19?

The continued global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a serious threat to global public health and social stability and it has become a serious global public health problem. Unfortunately, existing diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for the prevention and control of COVID-19 have many shortcomings. In recent years, the emerging CRISPR/Cas technology can complement the problems of traditional methods. Biological tools based on CRISPR/Cas systems have been widely used in biomedicine. In particular, they are advantageous in pathogen detection, clinical antiviral therapy, drug, and vaccine development. Therefore, CRISPR/Cas technology may have great potential for application in the prevention and control of COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases in the future. This article summarizes the existing applications of CRISPR/Cas technology in infectious diseases with the aim of providing effective strategies for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases in the future.

The emergence and outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses great challenges to our society, economy, and public health, and has already become an international public health emergency. The prevention and control of COVID-19 requires early detection and the timely and effective control of virus dissemination. Front-line medical personnel in the outpatient and emergency departments of hospitals, quarantine centers, and entry and exit ports are key to the early detection and control of COVID-19. Based on experiences in the prevention and control of other new and recurrent infectious diseases, epidemiologists previously proposed the concept of “vital sign zero” and the “Identify-Isolate-Inform” (3I) system for the detection and control of infectious diseases. The use of “vital sign zero” and the “3I system” for COVID-19 will facilitate the prevention and control of new infections, provide more timely treatment and effective isolation of patients, and protect the safety and health of medical workers. These concepts will also prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help to ensure public health and safety.

Integrating different types of vaccines into a singular immunization regimen is an effective and accessible approach to strengthen and broaden the immunogenicity of existing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine candidates. To optimize the immunization strategy of the novel mRNA-based vaccine and recombinant protein subunit vaccine that attracted much attention in COVID-19 vaccine development, we evaluated the immunogenicity of different combined regimens with the mRNA vaccine (RNA-RBD) and protein subunit vaccine (PS-RBD) in mice. Compared with homologous immunization of RNA-RBD or PS-RBD, heterologous prime-boost strategies for mRNA and protein subunit vaccines failed to simultaneously enhance neutralizing antibody (NAb) and Th1 cellular response in this study, showing modestly higher serum neutralizing activity and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity for "PS-RBD prime, RNA-RBD boost" and robust Th1 type cellular response for "RNA-RBD prime, PS-RBD boost". Interestingly, immunizing the mice with the mixed formulation of the two aforementioned vaccines in various proportions further significantly enhanced the NAb responses against ancestral, Delta, and Omicron strains and manifested increased Th1-type responses, suggesting that a mixed formulation of mRNA and protein vaccines might be a more prospective vaccination strategy. This study provides basic research data on the combined vaccination strategies of mRNA and protein-based COVID-19 vaccines.

As chloroquine (CHQ) is part of the Dutch Centre for Infectious Disease Control coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) experimental treatment guideline, pediatric dosing guidelines are needed. Recent pediatric data suggest that existing World Health Organization (WHO) dosing guidelines for children with malaria are suboptimal. The aim of our study was to establish best‐evidence to inform pediatric CHQ doses for children infected with COVID‐19. A previously developed physiologically‐based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for CHQ was used to simulate exposure in adults and children and verified against published pharmacokinetic data. The COVID‐19 recommended adult dosage regimen of 44 mg/kg total was tested in adults and children to evaluate the extent of variation in exposure. Based on differences in area under the concentration‐time curve from zero to 70 hours (AUC0–70h) the optimal CHQ dose was determined in children of different ages compared with adults. Revised doses were re‐introduced into the model to verify that overall CHQ exposure in each age band was within 5% of the predicted adult value. Simulations showed differences in drug exposure in children of different ages and adults when the same body‐weight based dose is given. As such, we propose the following total cumulative doses: 35 mg/kg (CHQ base) for children 0–1 month, 47 mg/kg for 1–6 months, 55 mg/kg for 6 months–12 years, and 44 mg/kg for adolescents and adults, not to exceed 3,300 mg in any patient. Our study supports age‐adjusted CHQ dosing in children with COVID‐19 in order to avoid suboptimal or toxic doses. The knowledge‐driven, model‐informed dose selection paradigm can serve as a science‐based alternative to recommend pediatric dosing when pediatric clinical trial data is absent.

A review on Promising vaccine development progress for COVID-19 disease

A review on Promising vaccine development progress for COVID-19 disease

Coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines: challenges of using global mass vaccination to achieve herd immunity.

Retraction: "Safety and immunogenicity of a recombinant receptor-binding domain-based protein subunit vaccine (Noora vaccine™) against COVID-19 in adults: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase 1 trial," by Salimian J, Ahmadi A, Amani J, et al. J Med Virol. 2022;95:e28097. The above article, published online on August 27, 2022 in Wiley Online Library (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.28097) has been retracted by agreement between the journal's Editor in Chief, Shou-Jiang (SJ) Gao, and Wiley Periodicals LLC. The retraction has been agreed due to concerns raised by third parties regarding issues with the data presented in the article.1 Several inconsistencies concerning the information provided about the analyzed subjects were additionally identified. Furthermore, the authors failed to disclose the presence of potential conflicts of interest that may have affected the interpretation of the results presented. Accordingly, the editors consider the conclusions of this manuscript to be invalid. The authors have been informed of the decision to retract but did not agree with it. REFERENCE 1. Forthal DN. Comment on the immunogenicity of the Noora vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. J Med Virol. 2023;95:e28731. doi:10.1002/jmv.28731.