Several Various Kinds of Potential Vaccines for COVID-19 Are in Development and How It Works

A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine can prevent you from getting COVID-19 or from becoming seriously ill or dying due to COVID-19. But how do the different types of COVID-19 vaccines work?

The Covid-19 vaccine causes the immune system to create antibodies to fight the virus. The vaccine uses a harmless version of the spike protein, which is found on the surface of the virus.

There are four primary types of COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States: adenovirus, mRNA, nucleic acid, and protein subunit.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. This type of vaccine uses genetically engineered mRNA to create immunity to the COVID-19 virus. The vaccine causes your muscle cells to create the S protein, which is found on the surface of the virus. When you become infected with the virus, your body will create antibodies to fight the virus.

The mRNA is immediately broken down after delivering instructions and never enters the nucleus of the cells, where the DNA is kept.

Vector vaccine. In this type of vaccine, genetic material from the COVID-19 virus is placed in a modified version of a different virus (viral vector). When the viral vector gets into your cells, it delivers genetic material from the COVID-19 virus that gives your cells instructions to make copies of the S protein. Once your cells display the S proteins on their surfaces, your immune system responds by creating antibodies and defensive white blood cells. If you later become infected with the covid-19 virus, the antibodies that you have built up will fight the virus.

Viral vector vaccines cannot make you infected with either the COVID-19 virus or the viral vector virus. In addition, the genetic material that is delivered does not become part of your DNA. The Janssen/Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine uses a common cold virus (adenovirus type 26) that has been modified to deliver the spike protein.

Protein subunit vaccine. Subunit vaccines only include the parts of a virus that stimulate your immune system the most. This type of Covid-19 vaccine contains harmless s proteins. Once your immune system recognizes the s proteins, it creates antibodies and defensive white blood cells. If you become infected with the Covid-19 virus later, the antibodies will fight the virus.

The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine is a protein subunit vaccine that is composed of spike protein particles that are produced using a recombinant protein platform.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, now called Comirnaty, to prevent COVID-19 in people age 12 and older. The vaccine is under an emergency use authorization for children age 6 months through age 11. The FDA has also approved the Moderna vaccine, now called Spikevax, to prevent COVID-19 in people age 18 and older. The FDA has given emergency use authorization to Moderna and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines for people aged 6 months to 17 years old and 18 years old and above, respectively.

Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/different-types-of-covid-19-vaccines/art-20506465