scholarly journals Smart Vaccine Manufacturing using Novel Biotechnology Platforms: A Study during COVID-19

Author(s):  
Vishnu Kumar ◽  
Vijay Srinivasan ◽  
Soundar Kumara

Abstract Healthcare experts have come to a consensus that effective and safe vaccines are necessary to control the rapid spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic across the globe. Since the traditional vaccine development and manufacturing approaches were unable to meet the rapidly growing COVID-19 vaccine demand, biopharmaceutical firms had to devise novel and smart techniques to boost the development, production, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in large-scale with lightning speed. This triggered their transition to smart vaccine manufacturing approaches using novel viral vector and nucleic acid biotechnology platforms. This paper tries to explore this rationality of the biopharmaceutical industry by comparing the traditional and the novel biotechnology platform-based vaccine manufacturing techniques and reviewing the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing scenarios. To highlight the “smart” characteristics of the novel platform-based COVID-19 vaccine products and to make effective comparison with the traditional products, a well-established product classification framework is used as a reference. Finally, the study concludes by presenting the future possibility of incorporating smart manufacturing paradigms with the novel platform-based manufacturing process. It is hoped that this study would serve as an asset for the biopharmaceutical firms to appropriately streamline their strategies, resources, and goals to meet the global vaccine requirements.

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Abdellatif Bouazzaoui ◽  
Ahmed A. H. Abdellatif ◽  
Faisal A. Al-Allaf ◽  
Neda M. Bogari ◽  
Saied Al-Dehlawi ◽  
...  

The current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has raised significant economic, social, and psychological concerns. The rapid spread of the virus, coupled with the absence of vaccines and antiviral treatments for SARS-CoV-2, has galvanized a major global endeavor to develop effective vaccines. Within a matter of just a few months of the initial outbreak, research teams worldwide, adopting a range of different strategies, embarked on a quest to develop effective vaccine that could be effectively used to suppress this virulent pathogen. In this review, we describe conventional approaches to vaccine development, including strategies employing proteins, peptides, and attenuated or inactivated pathogens in combination with adjuvants (including genetic adjuvants). We also present details of the novel strategies that were adopted by different research groups to successfully transfer recombinantly expressed antigens while using viral vectors (adenoviral and retroviral) and non-viral delivery systems, and how recently developed methods have been applied in order to produce vaccines that are based on mRNA, self-amplifying RNA (saRNA), and trans-amplifying RNA (taRNA). Moreover, we discuss the methods that are being used to enhance mRNA stability and protein production, the advantages and disadvantages of different methods, and the challenges that are encountered during the development of effective vaccines.


2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (7) ◽  
pp. 3444-3454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles N. Agoti ◽  
James R. Otieno ◽  
Patrick K. Munywoki ◽  
Alexander G. Mwihuri ◽  
Patricia A. Cane ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTHuman respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with severe childhood respiratory infections. A clear description of local RSV molecular epidemiology, evolution, and transmission requires detailed sequence data and can inform new strategies for virus control and vaccine development. We have generated 27 complete or nearly complete genomes of RSV from hospitalized children attending a rural coastal district hospital in Kilifi, Kenya, over a 10-year period using a novel full-genome deep-sequencing process. Phylogenetic analysis of the new genomes demonstrated the existence and cocirculation of multiple genotypes in both RSV A and B groups in Kilifi. Comparison of local versus global strains demonstrated that most RSV A variants observed locally in Kilifi were also seen in other parts of the world, while the Kilifi RSV B genomes encoded a high degree of variation that was not observed in other parts of the world. The nucleotide substitution rates for the individual open reading frames (ORFs) were highest in the regions encoding the attachment (G) glycoprotein and the NS2 protein. The analysis of RSV full genomes, compared to subgenomic regions, provided more precise estimates of the RSV sequence changes and revealed important patterns of RSV genomic variation and global movement. The novel sequencing method and the new RSV genomic sequences reported here expand our knowledge base for large-scale RSV epidemiological and transmission studies.IMPORTANCEThe new RSV genomic sequences and the novel sequencing method reported here provide important data for understanding RSV transmission and vaccine development. Given the complex interplay between RSV A and RSV B infections, the existence of local RSV B evolution is an important factor in vaccine deployment.


Parasitology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 133 (S2) ◽  
pp. S169-S187 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. I. MORRISON ◽  
D. J. McKEEVER

The tick-borne protozoan parasitesTheileria parvaandTheileria annulatacause economically important diseases of cattle in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Because of shortcomings in disease control measures based on therapy and tick control, there is a demand for effective vaccines against these diseases. Vaccines using live parasites have been available for over two decades, but despite their undoubted efficacy they have not been used on a large scale. Lack of infrastructure for vaccine production and distribution, as well as concerns about the introduction of vaccine parasite strains into local tick populations have curtailed the use of these vaccines. More recently, research has focused on the development of subunit vaccines. Studies of immune responses to different stages of the parasites have yielded immunological probes that have been used to identify candidate vaccine antigens. Immunisation of cattle with antigens expressed in the sporozoite, schizont or merozoite stages has resulted in varying degrees of protection against challenge. Although the levels of protection achieved have not been sufficient to allow exploitation for vaccination, there are clearly further lines of investigation, relating to both the choice of antigens and the antigen delivery systems employed, that need to be pursued to fully explore the potential of the candidate vaccines. Improved knowledge of the molecular biology and immunology of the parasites gained during the course of these studies has also opened up opportunities to refine and improve the quality of live vaccines.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie M Rose ◽  
Virginia L Schmit ◽  
Thomas C Darton ◽  
Nir Eyal ◽  
Monica Magalhaes ◽  
...  

AbstractIn human challenge trials, volunteers are deliberately infected with a pathogen to accelerate vaccine development and answer key scientific questions. In the U.S., preparations for challenge trials with the novel coronavirus are complete, and in the U.K., challenge trials have recently begun. However, ethical concerns have been raised about the potential for invalid consent or exploitation. These concerns largely reflect worries that challenge trial volunteers may be unusually risk-seeking or too economically vulnerable to refuse the payments these trials provide, rather than being motivated primarily by altruistic goals. We conducted the first large-scale survey of intended human challenge trial volunteers and found that SARS-CoV-2 challenge trial volunteers exhibit high levels of altruistic motivations without any special indication of poor risk perception or economic vulnerability. Findings indicate that challenge trials with the novel coronavirus can attract volunteers with background conditions, attitudes, and motivations that should allay key ethical concerns.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1474
Author(s):  
Hoda Najjar ◽  
Hadeel T. Al-Jighefee ◽  
Abeer Qush ◽  
Muna Nizar Ahmed ◽  
Sara Awwad ◽  
...  

As of March 2020, the time when the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) became a pandemic, our existence has been threatened and the lives of millions have been claimed. With this ongoing global issue, vaccines are considered of paramount importance in curtailing the outbreak and probably a prime gamble to bring us back to ‘ordinary life’. To date, more than 200 vaccine candidates have been produced, many of which were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use, with the research and discovery phase of their production process passed over. Capering such a chief practice in COVID-19 vaccine development, and manufacturing vaccines at an unprecedented speed brought many challenges into play and raised COVID-19 vaccine remonstrance. In this review, we highlight relevant challenges to global COVID-19 vaccine development, dissemination, and deployment, particularly at the level of large-scale production and distribution. We also delineate public perception on COVID-19 vaccination and outline the main facets affecting people’s willingness to get vaccinated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 01-04
Author(s):  
Pankaj Bansal

The novel coronavirus was first discovered and reported in December 2019. Later termed the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-COv-2) virus, rapid spread was detected in China. Overtime, SARS-COv-2 spread to various other countries requiring swift intervention on a global scale. As infection spread, several therapeutics have been investigated for Coronavirus Disease- 2019 (COVID-19), including remdesivir, lopinavir/ritonavir, hydroxychloroquine, dexamethasone, etc. Furthermore, rapid investigation and construction of several potential vaccines have begun, some of which are in late stage testing. We present a concise timeline representing the evolution of COVID-19, therapeutic trials, and vaccine development. Ultimately, evident by the overall poor efficacy of several medications investigated so far, vaccination success remains the most likely effective step to combat COVID-19.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingguang Chen ◽  
Wangxiang Li ◽  
Anshuman Kumar ◽  
Guanghui Li ◽  
Mikhail Itkis ◽  
...  

<p>Interconnecting the surfaces of nanomaterials without compromising their outstanding mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties is critical in the design of advanced bulk structures that still preserve the novel properties of their nanoscale constituents. As such, bridging the p-conjugated carbon surfaces of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) has special implications in next-generation electronics. This study presents a rational path towards improvement of the electrical transport in aligned semiconducting SWNT films by deposition of metal atoms. The formation of conducting Cr-mediated pathways between the parallel SWNTs increases the transverse (intertube) conductance, while having negligible effect on the parallel (intratube) transport. In contrast, doping with Li has a predominant effect on the intratube electrical transport of aligned SWNT films. Large-scale first-principles calculations of electrical transport on aligned SWNTs show good agreement with the experimental electrical measurements and provide insight into the changes that different metal atoms exert on the density of states near the Fermi level of the SWNTs and the formation of transport channels. </p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 1085-1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Kumar Gupta ◽  
Girish R. Apte ◽  
Kiran Bharat Lokhande ◽  
Satyendra Mishra ◽  
Jayanta K. Pal

: With the emergence of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the whole world is suffering from atypical pneumonia, which resulted in more than 559,047 deaths worldwide. In this time of crisis and urgency, the only hope comes from new candidate vaccines and potential antivirals. However, formulating new vaccines and synthesizing new antivirals are a laborious task. Therefore, considering the high infection rate and mortality due to COVID-19, utilization of previous information, and repurposing of existing drugs against valid viral targets have emerged as a novel drug discovery approach in this challenging time. The transmembrane spike (S) glycoprotein of coronaviruses (CoVs), which facilitates the virus’s entry into the host cells, exists in a homotrimeric form and is covered with N-linked glycans. S glycoprotein is known as the main target of antibodies having neutralizing potency and is also considered as an attractive target for therapeutic or vaccine development. Similarly, targeting of N-linked glycans of S glycoprotein envelope of CoV via carbohydrate-binding agents (CBAs) could serve as an attractive therapeutic approach for developing novel antivirals. CBAs from natural sources like lectins from plants, marine algae and prokaryotes and lectin mimics like Pradimicin-A (PRM-A) have shown antiviral activities against CoV and other enveloped viruses. However, the potential use of CBAs specifically lectins was limited due to unfavorable responses like immunogenicity, mitogenicity, hemagglutination, inflammatory activity, cellular toxicity, etc. Here, we reviewed the current scenario of CBAs as antivirals against CoVs, presented strategies to improve the efficacy of CBAs against CoVs; and studied the molecular interactions between CBAs (lectins and PRM-A) with Man9 by molecular docking for potential repurposing against CoVs in general, and SARSCoV- 2, in particular.


Author(s):  
Zuzana Strizova ◽  
Jitka Smetanova ◽  
Jirina Bartunkova ◽  
Tomas Milota

The number of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected patients keeps rising in most of the European countries despite the pandemic precaution measures. The current antiviral and anti-inflammatory therapeutic approaches are only supportive, have limited efficacy, and the prevention in reducing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus is the best hope for public health. It is presumed that an effective vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection could mobilize the innate and adaptive immune responses and provide a protection against severe forms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease. As the race for the effective and safe vaccine has begun, different strategies were introduced. To date, viral vector-based vaccines, genetic vaccines, attenuated vaccines, and protein-based vaccines are the major vaccine types tested in the clinical trials. Over 80 clinical trials have been initiated; however, only 18 vaccines have reached the clinical phase II/III or III, and 4 vaccine candidates are under consideration or have been approved for the use so far. In addition, the protective effect of the off-target vaccines, such as <i>Bacillus</i> Calmette-Guérin and measles vaccine, is being explored in randomized prospective clinical trials with SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. In this review, we discuss the most promising anti-COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials and different vaccination strategies in order to provide more clarity into the ongoing clinical trials.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1940
Author(s):  
Muhammad Usman Naseer ◽  
Ants Kallaste ◽  
Bilal Asad ◽  
Toomas Vaimann ◽  
Anton Rassõlkin

This paper presents current research trends and prospects of utilizing additive manufacturing (AM) techniques to manufacture electrical machines. Modern-day machine applications require extraordinary performance parameters such as high power-density, integrated functionalities, improved thermal, mechanical & electromagnetic properties. AM offers a higher degree of design flexibility to achieve these performance parameters, which is impossible to realize through conventional manufacturing techniques. AM has a lot to offer in every aspect of machine fabrication, such that from size/weight reduction to the realization of complex geometric designs. However, some practical limitations of existing AM techniques restrict their utilization in large scale production industry. The introduction of three-dimensional asymmetry in machine design is an aspect that can be exploited most with the prevalent level of research in AM. In order to take one step further towards the enablement of large-scale production of AM-built electrical machines, this paper also discusses some machine types which can best utilize existing developments in the field of AM.


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