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Never before has any vaccine been developed as rapidly and efficiently as the vaccines for COVID-19 that are now on the market. The rapid pace is partly due to the fact that the genetic code for the SARSCoV-2 virus was made public, enabling researchers across the globe to study it. – But the research on which the vaccine is based has actually been around for a long time, and was initially developed to produce preparations for HIV, Ali Harandi explains. Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
Illustration: Maria Källström
De vacciner som PfThe vaccines developed by
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are so-called mRNA vaccines, explains Ali Harandi, Associate Professor of Clinical Immunology, and head of the vaccine laboratory at the Institute of Biomedicine. – They primarily consist of mRNA, the very blueprint for the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s spike protein. In order for the mRNA to enter a muscle cell at the injection site, it is encased in a small lipid particle. The mRNA subsequently instructs the cells to produce the coronavirus’s spike protein. The immune system thinks it is a foreign intruder and starts to protect the body by producing antibodies and perhaps cell-mediated immunity. The vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, on the other hand, is a vector-based vaccine. – That means that the vaccine uses a weakened common cold virus that has been manipulated into producing the coronavirus protein. When the virus, disguised as the coronavirus, turns up in the body, the immune system recognizes it as an intruder and defends the body against it. Unlike the mRNA vaccine, there have been vector vaccines for human use for some time; a very successful one is the Ebola vaccine that was developed two years ago. Another vector vaccine, manufactured by Johnsson
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GUJOURNAL MARCH 2021
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