Specialist explains the advantage of Belarus’ inactivated anti-COVID vaccine over vector one
Despite the fact that the coronavirus pandemic is officially a thing of the past, COVID is not going anywhere, with its pathogen constantly evolving. Director of the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Engineering at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Head of the Centre for Experimental and Applied Virology Andrei Goncharov explains whether the Belarusian vaccine will be effective against existing strains of SARS-CoV-2, as well as new mutations.
“The domestic vaccine is inactivated, which means that it consists of microbial particles that are grown in controlled lab conditions and are non-infectious, i.e., not capable of causing disease. In fact, this is an analogue of the Chinese anti-COVID vaccine. What is its advantage? The SARS-CoV-2 virus is constantly mutating. If a vaccine has the full complement of viral proteins, it is more likely to be effective against new strains that emerge. One protein has changed, but the rest have not, meaning that the protective properties have been preserved, although not in full. This is the fundamental difference between an inactivated vaccine and a vector vaccine, which is produced in the following way: scientists take a not very pathogenic human adenovirus and deprive it of its ability to reproduce for a long time, after which they insert fragments of the coronavirus genome into it. Once in the body, the adenovirus enters cells and builds a number of proteins with their help. The immune system sees the coronavirus proteins and produces antibodies. But there is a weak point here: what genetic code was built into the adenovirus, the vaccine works against this strain. As soon as the strain has changed, the vaccine also needs to be modified. There are no such problems with the inactivated vaccine. In defence of vector vaccines, I will say that they were more effective in generating protective immunity than inactivated ones. But when we faced with the endless mutation of the virus, it became clear that preference should be given to the latter.”
The Belarus-made coronavirus vaccine – BelCovidVac – was registered in Belarus on December 27th, 2023, having passed all the necessary clinical trials.
