Unlike the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine which uses messenger RNA against Covid-19, the Sputnik V vaccine uses transformed adenoviruses to help the immune system fight the coronavirus.
-1605179728.jpg "Covid-19: how does the Russian Sputnik V vaccine work?")
- The Sputnik V vaccine uses two transformed adenoviruses to fight Covid-19.
- Unlike Pfizer and BioNTech which use messenger RNA, Russia has chosen the vectorized vaccine solution.
- By vectorizing a vaccine, they provide the body with some of the totally harmless Covid-19 genetic material, which our body can use to manufacture antibodies against Covid-19.
All methods are good to fight Covid-19. Earlier this week, the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that it had developed with its German counterpart BioNTech a vaccine against Covid-19 that is 90% effective. The Gamaleya Institute, its Russian competitor, was quick to also unveil its own vaccine, still in phase III, which would be 92% effective against coronavirus infection.
The same family of viruses as the common cold
If Pfizer bases its process on a messenger RNA which delivers to our immune system the solution to synthesize antibodies against the coronavirus, the method used by the Russians is radically different.
The Gamaleya Institute says it uses two transformed adenoviruses in its vaccine. Adenoviruses are a family of around one hundred viruses, of which around forty can infect humans. Our body has already encountered an adenovirus, since it is one of them that is responsible for the common cold.
By substituting certain parts of an adenovirus to put in the genetic material of Covid-19, our body could be able to arm itself against this new threat. The idea of the Russian laboratory is therefore to create a vectorized vaccine, that is to say a vaccine containing a viral vector which alerts the immune system of an attack, but which remains harmless because it cannot infect the body.
To create a viral vector, you must first modify part of the virus to replace it with the desired genetic material, in this case, that of Covid-19. In addition, it is also necessary to remove the protein that the virus normally uses to multiply. Thus, when the product is injected into the body, it brings with it the new genetic material (that of Covid-19), while being “harmless” for the body since it can neither replicate nor infect the organism. With this element, our body can create and train antibodies which will be effective against Covid-19.
Promising results
According to figures provided by Russia, their vaccine is 92% effective against Covid-19. The tests must still last for six months before being approved or not. Some countries like Turkey have decided to help Russia produce these new vaccines in their factories.
A billion doses have already been ordered by twenty countries, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the organization responsible for developing and marketing the product internationally, while the vaccine is not completely ready.
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