This vaccine is transported and stored between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius, which facilitates its distribution compared to those mentioned above. Like the previous ones, this vaccine requires two doses to be more effective, and both must be between 10 and 12 weeks apart (preferably 12). This vaccine uses an inactivated adenovirus, that is, a virus that cannot divide within our body, as a vector to introduce the genetic material necessary for our cells to generate the coronavirus spine protein and thus our immune system responds by creating antibodies. The next vaccine to be approved in the European Union was from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The main disadvantage of these vaccines is their transport and storage, as it requires a permanent cold chain with extremely low temperatures that require freezers of -20 and -80 degree centigrade. Pfizer's requires 21 days between doses and Moderna's 28. The two vaccines require two doses to increase their effectiveness, although the time between the two inoculations is different. In the case of being infected after the administration of a vaccine, the body recognizes the virus and fights it. Meanwhile, the manufactured proteins are transported to the surface of the cell, or fragmented into small pieces that also appear on the surface, and in this way are recognized by the immune system, generating antibodies and memory cells. After this process, the cell removes the mRNA. Once one of these vaccines is administered, the mRNA enters the cells and serves as a template to generate copies of the S protein. To put it in other words, this protein is like the key that the virus uses to enter the cells of our body. This last type includes the first vaccines approved for use in humans, the so-called messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, which are those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.īoth vaccines are quite similar since they both contain the information necessary to synthesize the main antigen of the coronavirus, which is the spike protein (S), which is found on the surface of the virus. And other completely new methods such as those that incorporate encapsulation of the genetic material that contains the instructions for making virus-specific proteins. There are other slightly more novel methods, in which a harmless empty virus (viral vector) is used that carries either genes that express proteins or parts of proteins that belong to the virus against which it is intended to create immunity. The most traditional use the whole virus, either inactivated or attenuated (such as polio and measles, respectively) or fragments of it (such as whooping cough). There are different methods of making vaccines. In fact, it is the first time that so many vaccine candidates are being developed simultaneously against the same disease.
There are different types of vaccines currently approved (and in use) and others that are in the later stages of clinical trials. To date, one of the great unknowns that is being studied is how long these memory cells can protect us against the virus. The latter will quickly notify our body that it has encountered the same virus again, in which case antibodies will be produced again to attack it. Regardless of whether vaccines are of one type or another, they all help our body develop immunity against the virus that causes the disease by generating, on the one hand, antibodies that recognize and fight it, and on the other, memory cells. What do all Covid-19 vaccines have in common? The answer is simple. Even so, exposed as we are to so much information, it is not easy to get a clear idea about how each of those that have reached the market and that are currently being administered to the population work. Never before have we heard people talk both in the media and in our daily lives about vaccines, the types of vaccines, and the big pharmaceutical companies and laboratories that develop them. 2020 came with a pandemic and loaded with a lot of terms or buzzwords related to the world of vaccines.
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