Cuba develops the world’s first conjugate vaccine for COVID-19
- July 11, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Cuba develops the world’s first conjugate vaccine for COVID-19
Subject : Science & tech
Context : Cuba’s indigenously produced vaccines- Soberana 2 and Abdala have registered strong efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2.
Concept :
- Both Soberana 2 and Abdala are subunit vaccines.
- In Abdala the spike protein of the coronavirus is combined with a chemically manufactured adjuvant, whereas in Soberana 2, the spike protein is chemically linked to the tetanus toxoid, making it a conjugate vaccine.
Subunit vaccines:
- Rather than injecting a whole pathogen to trigger an immune response, subunit vaccines (sometimes called acellular vaccines) contain purified pieces of it, which have been specially selected for their ability to stimulate immune cells.
- In the case of these subunit vaccines, a part of the virus forms the antigen and is hitched on to another construct.
Conjugate vaccines:
- A conjugate vaccine is a type of vaccine which combines a weak antigen with a strong antigen as a carrier so that the immune system has a stronger immunological response to the weak antigen.
- The most common conjugate vaccines are those used for Haemophilus influenza type b and the pneumococcal bacteria.
Advantages:
- Major advantages of the conjugate vaccines are their ability to elicit immunological memory and to reduce asymptomatic carriage of the bacteria, resulting in marked herd immunity.
- Also conjugate vaccines have a very good safety record and have been associated with very few, serious adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) after more than 20 years of use.
- They give rise to improved immune memory and thus offer longer lasting protection.
- They help offer protection to infants and toddlers,
Significance of the Cuban vaccines:
- The design and manufacturing of the conjugate vaccines allows them to be stored in regular refrigeration settings of 2–8 degree Celsius
- The methodology involved is also one of the most economical approaches to vaccine production.