PPC- Episode #7: Treatments Versus Vaccines
In our current episode, we will discuss the differences between the vaccine and the treatment of Covid-19. In my previous episode, I mentioned I would talk about Pharmacology, and then suddenly, I just jumped into two parts of the vaccination topics. However, it seems that with the vaccine race happening globally, there is so much news to share about the vaccine of coronavirus. So, next time we will discuss the Pharmacology of the treatment. For now, let us move on to discuss the immunization versus treatment of Covid-19.
The vaccine has a preventive aspect so that one will not get sick. As one gets injected with a vaccine, the idea is for the body to develop and immunity to fight against a specific disease. Now, treatment is done when the patient is already sick with a particular pathology. Also, it is a way to prevent further seriousness and more injury to the ill individual. Drug treatments usually act against further growth and multiplication of bacterial and viral infections exhibited among antibiotics' drug action.
Traditional Versus New Methods
More than 90 different vaccines under development have a different function. A number is based on the old methodologies, while others are new designs. After the genome-wide DNA sequencing, they now use genetically based vaccine designs to prove its effectivity in the future. According to Dr. De Wilde, "I think in this case it's very wise to have different platforms being tried out." In the old way, the approach is to make vaccines from viruses. When the person's body encounters a new virus, the immune system produces antibodies. It is referred to as the antigen-antibody complex. The antibodies attack the bacterial and viral replication in the body. Of course, antibodies should prevent multiplication from causing severe diseases. Producing effective antibodies can prevent infection. But sometimes, the antibodies will not be adequate to fight foreign bacterial and viral infections.
Vaccines, as I mentioned before, signals the immune system of the body. They stimulate the immunity of an individual to create antibodies before the infection sets into the body. The rabies vaccine came from viruses. They inactivated it to make it a weaker virus to make a vaccine. Currently, scientists are also doing the same procedure by weakening the Covid-19 virus to produce a vaccine. The Chinese company Sinovac announced last April that its inactivated vaccine protected the monkeys. The immune system produces antibodies that attach to the viruses. In their experimental studies, scientists concluded that injecting a part of the viral protein is adequate to target the foreign viral invasion. It is an example of the so-called subunit viral vaccines against hepatitis B and shingles. So now, there multiple Covid-19 subunit vaccines that are being tested. Researchers began working on vaccines in the 1990s that conditioned the body cells to assist the immune system. Adenovirus was founded on this principle. There was an alteration in the adenovirus that infects human cells, which does not lead to sickness. By adding a gene to the adenovirus, scientists created a viral vector. In this case, the adenovirus is used as a vector when delivering the new gene through cell infection. They then undergo viral modification, which will not cause any disease outcome. Viral vector vaccines use the type of virus, such as the retrovirus, to carry the new gene (DNA) into the human cell's chromosome. So, the viral DNA acting as antigens that infect the human cell elicit an immune response. It is interesting to note that the viruses' specialized molecular mechanisms can transport their genomes inside the cells they infect. That is why viral vectors are used by molecular biologists to deliver genes into the body ce

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