Manuela Londoño, Daniel Turriago & Paulina De Vivero 9ºA Feb.09.

2021

SARS CoV 2 review

2-Research about the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology and explain it.

The Central Dogma explains the flow of genetic formation from DNA to RNA into a functional
product, a protein.

● It suggests that DNA haves the information needed to make all of our proteins
● RNA is a messenger that carries all of this information to the ribosomes. (transcription)
● The ribosomes work as factories inside the cell where the information is converted into a
functional product.(translation)
● This process is called gene transcription
● Gene transcription has two main stages transcription and translation
● Transcription happens when the DNA is converted into portable RNA messages
● Translation is when these messages travel from the nucleus where the DNA is located, to
the ribosomes where the messages are analyzed and a protein is made.

3-Create a glossary with the keywords needed to understand the science behind the SARS-CoV 2
vaccination program. Make sure that you define them.

● Vaccine
○ a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity
against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its
products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing
the disease.
● Pathogen
○ a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease.
● Antigen
○ a toxin or other foreign substance which induces an immune response in the body,
especially the production of antibodies.
● Antibody
○ a blood protein produced in response to and counteracting a specific antigen.
Antibodies combine chemically with substances which the body recognizes as
alien, such as bacteria, viruses, and foreign substances in the blood.
● Macrophages
○ A type of white blood cell that surrounds and kills microorganisms, removes
dead cells, and stimulates the action of other immune system cells.
● B-lymphocytes
○
T-lymphocytes
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Immune system
Herd immunity
mRNA Vaccines
Protein Subunit Vaccine
Vector vaccines

4-Create a concept map explaining the importance of vaccination, and how vaccines and
immunity work.
5-Explain why antibiotics aren't working on viruses.
- Antibiotics are drugs that, like the common cold, the flu, or COVID-19, can not kill
viruses. Antibiotics fight bacteria, which, in their structure and function, are completely
different from viruses. Strep throat, whooping cough, urinary tract infections and life
threatening diseases such as sepsis are infections caused by bacteria that need antibiotics.
Unless you need it, it is important not to take an antibiotic, because it can have serious
side effects and lead to antibiotic resistance where the antibiotic can no longer stop the
bacteria.

6-Create a comparison chart explaining the differences between the SARS-CoV 2 vaccines
(already authorized): Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna. (How do they work,
components/molecules, technology, storage and transportation, price, efficacy, immune
response)
- Pfizer-BioNTech
On Friday, November 20, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was submitted to the FDA
for potential Emergency use Authorization in the EUA and approved on December 11. It is a
vaccine with mRNA that codes for the spike protein of the virus and is encapsulated in a lipid
nanoparticle. When injected, the cells churn the protein out of the spike, activating the immune
system of the body to recognise the virus. It showed 95 percent efficacy in Phase III trials. Stored
at about -94 degrees F, which includes specialized freezers, is required for the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine.
Type: mRNA
Doses: 2 months 21 days apart
EUA Date: December 11, 2020
Price: $19.50 per dose for first 100 million doses
Efficacy: About 95%

- Moderna
On November 16, Moderna published a preliminary data reading of its COVID-19 vaccine,
suggesting a 94.5 percent effectiveness score. The FDA endorsed it on December 19. Just like
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, it is an mRNA vaccine. However, unlike that vaccine, Moderna is
stable for up to 30 days at 36 to 46 degrees F, at the temperature of a normal home or medical
refrigerator, and can be kept for up to six months at -4 degrees F. It is scheduled to go to the
FDA for approval for EUA within days.
Type: mRNA
Doses: 2 months 28 days apart
EUA Date: December 18, 2020
Price: $25-$37 per dose
Efficacy: About 95%

- AstraZeneca-University of Oxford
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford published high-level findings from an interim review
of their vaccine for COVID-19, on November 23, 2020. The study was based on research in the
United Kingdom and Brazil and demonstrated up to 90% efficacy. The vaccine was successful in
preventing COVID-19, with no hospitalizations or serious cases of COVID-19 in individuals
receiving it. The interim study group had a total of 131 COVID-19 positive cases. One dosing
regimen was administered at half a dose and showed 90% effectiveness, followed by a full dose
at least a month apart. When given two full doses at least one month apart, another dosing
regimen demonstrated 62 percent efficacy. The combined study indicated an average efficacy of
70% . The AstraZeneca vaccine may be prepared, transported and treated for at least six months
under standard refrigerated conditions, approximately 36-46 degrees F, and administered inside
established health care settings.

The vaccine used by AstraZeneca and Oxford University uses technology from Vaccitech, an
Oxford spin-out company. Centered on a weakened variant of a common cold virus (adenovirus)
that causes chimpanzee infections, it deploys a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector. The
genetic materials of the spike protein are found here. The cells develop the Spike protein after
vaccination, activating the immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Type: Adenovirus-based
Doses: 2 months 28 days apart
Likely EUA Date: Authorized in Europe on January 12, 2021, and other countries, but unlikely
in the U.S. until spring
Price: $25-$37 per dose
Efficacy: Currently about 70% overall

- Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson announced on November 15 that it had initiated a second global Phase III
trial of its Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. They expect it to enroll up to 60,000 volunteers
worldwide. Whereas all the other three candidates need two doses approximately 28 days apart,
the J&J vaccine needs only a single dose. The strong immune response was caused by a single
dose of the vaccine and was generally well tolerated, interim results from its Phase I/IIa trial
showed. A study of ENSEMBLE 2 also tested a two-dose regimen. The Phase III ENSEMBLE
trial showed that the single-shot vaccine was 66 percent effective in preventing moderate-to-
severe COVID-19 overall, 28 days after vaccination. However, 100 percent effectiveness was
shown to prevent serious illness after day 49. The vaccine uses the company's AdVac technology
platform, which was used to develop its approved Ebola vaccine and its Zika, RSV and HIV
investigational vaccine candidates. It revolves around utilizing an inactivated common cold
virus, close to what the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford program utilizes.

Type: Adenovirus-based
Doses: 1
Likely EUA Date: Possibly March or April 2021
Price: $10 per dose
Efficacy: Unknown, expected by end of February 2021

- Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine

About November 11, Russia's National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology,
which Russia approved for use in August, claimed a 92 percent efficacy rate after the second
dose before even starting a Phase III trial. During the ongoing Phase III review, it was based on a
first interim examination 21 days after the first injection. Based on new preliminary data, on
November 24, the organization claimed 95 percent efficacy. They recorded 91.4 percent efficacy
on December 14, 2020 . It also offered to share with AstraZeneca one of its two human
adenoviral vectors to improve the potency of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Russian research institute Gamaleya appears to be focused on the future promotion of its
vaccine worldwide. The idea of a breed has also been highlighted by the name of the vaccine. A
dose of the vaccine has been suggested by the organization to cost no more than $10, around half
the cost of the Pfizer vaccine. The organization has also estimated that in the next year they will
deliver 1 billion doses. It would probably be sold in India, Korea, Brazil, China, and Hungary at
this time, aside from Russia. The Hungarian government has become the only country in the
European Union to show its concern to date.

The Lancet released Phase III results on February 2, 2021, demonstrating a 91.6 percent efficacy
against the initial virus strain.

Type: Adenovirus-based
Doses: 2
Likely EUA Date: Not applicable in the U.S.
Price: $10 per dose
Efficacy: 91.4%

- Sinovac Biotech
On January 13, 2021, in late-stage clinical trials in Brazil, China-based Sinovac Biotech
announced that its COVID-19 vaccine was 50.38 percent successful. Clinical studies by the
company show widely different efficacy rates. A local trial showed an efficacy rate of 65 percent
in Indonesia, but the trial had only 1,620 participants. In December 2020, Turkey registered an
efficacy rate of 91,25 percent. Another research conducted in Brazil by a local affiliate, the
Butantan Institute, recorded a 78% efficacy rate in mild cases last week, whereas 100% against
serious and moderate infections. It's an inactivated vaccine that uses SARS-CoV-2 viruses that
are inactivated.
Type: Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus
Doses: 2
Likely EUA Date: Not applicable in the U.S.
Price: $60 per dose in China ($29.75 per dose)
Efficacy: 50.38% to 91.25%, depending on the clinical trial

- Novavax
On January 28, 2021, Novavax revealed that in its Phase III trial in the UK, its COVID-19
vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, had met the primary endpoint with a vaccine efficacy of 89.3 percent.
A protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate is the vaccine. It also has data from the phase IIb
trial in South Africa and other phase I, II and III trials. It has shown high clinical efficacy against
variants from the UK and South Africa as well.

The vaccine contains a full-length prefusion spike protein developed using the recombinant
nanoparticle technology of the company and its patented Matrix-M adjuvant based on saponin. It
is stable at 2 to 8 degrees C and shipped in a liquid formulation that is ready to use.

Type: Protein-based vaccine

Doses: 2
Likely EUA Date: Possibly in March or February 2021 in the UK; possibly Q1 2021 or later in
the U.S.
Price: $16 in the US
Efficacy: 89.3%

- CanSino Biologics
The CanSino Biologics vaccine was developed in collaboration with the Chinese army. It has a
65.7 percent efficacy score in the prevention of symptomatic cases. This is based on a multi-
country review first posted on Twitter on February 8, 2021, by Faisal Sultan, Pakistan's health
advisor. The Phase III study involved 30,000 participants and showed 90.98 percent
effectiveness in serious disease prevention. It takes only a single shot. It has agreed to provide
Mexico with 35 million doses and is in negotiations with Malaysia for 3.5 million shots. Pakistan
is conducting one of the biggest trials, and 20 million shots have been contracted. It is also
collaborating with the WHO in the Covax program to be approved for the vaccine. Russia is also
planning a trial to decide whether switching the second dose of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V
with Can Sino will provide the same or better protection.
Type: Viral vector, loading an antigen from the SARS-CoV-2 virus onto an adenovirus.
Doses: 1
Likely EUA Date: Not applicable in the U.S.
Price: Unknown
Efficacy: 65.7% at preventing symptomatic cases; 90.98% efficacy in preventing severe disease.

7-Conclusions (What did you find? What patterns did you see? What did you learn? Important
facts)