Chinese COVID vaccine (I) : How does it work?

HOW DOES VACCINE WORK?

The idea of all vaccines is to trick our body into thinking it’s been infected. Concrete methods can be varied.

Up to now, vaccines from China have been developed from five technological routes, namely inactivated vaccine, recombinant protein vaccine, adenoviral vector vaccine, attenuated influenza vaccine and nucleic acid vaccine.

Inactivated virus vaccines, which use killed viral particles to stimulate the body's immune response without risking a serious disease response. Vaccines developed by Sinopharm and Sinovac use this technology.

Instead of using the whole virus, recombinant protein vaccines insert purified antigen into human body. By using specific pieces of the germ, the vaccines can trigger a very strong immune response targeted to key parts of the virus.

Common cold viruses can be engineered to shuttle a gene from the novel coronavirus into our bodies, where our cells will read it and express the antigen, provoking the response of immune system. This is how adenoviral vector vaccine works.

Attenuated influenza vaccines use a weakened form of virus to cause a disease. The vaccines are so similar to the natural infection that they create a strong and long-lasting immune response. If you are afraid of needles, this nasal spray version of vaccine may make you more comfortable.

Nucleic acid vaccines use genetic material like DNA and RNA from the virus to instruct our own cells to manufacture antigens, which then trigger an immune response.