Heterologous boosting
- August 11, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Heterologous boosting
Subject: Science and Technology
Context: Mixing Covishield and Covaxin, the two main vaccines against Covid-19 in use in India, has found by a new ICMR study to be safe and also to provide better immunity.
Concept:
Heterologous boosting
- The idea of heterologous boosting initially emerged in Europe,.
- Vaccine platforms may vary in their ability to induce antibody and T-cell response
- If one platform induces a predominantly antibody response, experts say it can be followed by a platform that induces predominantly a T cell response (e.g. vector and DNA vaccines Such heterologous strategies are being studied in HIV, malaria, flavivirus (e.g. dengue), HPV, Ebola and influenza.
Mixing Covishield and Covaxin
- Covishield is an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine, while Covaxin is an inactivated whole virus vaccine.
- This study demonstrates that immunisation with a heterologous combination of an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine followed by an inactivated whole virus vaccine is safe and elicits better immunogenicity than two doses of homologous vaccination, using the same vaccines
- Covishield will trigger only an anti-spike protein response (and of course anti -adenovirus response). Covaxin used as a booster in principle should boost anti-spike response further and generate a primary response against all other SARS-CoV-2 proteins which are part of the Covaxin preparation
- The ICMR data in the preprint shows that heterologous vaccination can indeed trigger an anti-N-protein response due to a boost with Covaxin. However further data will be needed to state that heterologous vaccination strategy for Covishield and Covaxin combination is useful
Impact
- According to the World Health Organization, there is currently limited data on the immunogenicity or efficacy of a “mix and match” regimen.
- Experts caution that mixing should not be randomly done but should be based on understanding multiple issues.