China has approved the world’s first inhaled COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccine maker CanSino Biologics (CanSinBIO) in Tianjin, China has announced.
Key points
- China’s National Medical Products Administration has approved the vaccine for use as a booster.
- The newly approved vaccine, named Convidecia Air, uses the same technology as the firm’s World Health Organization–approved viral vector COVID-19 vaccine.
- It uses the same platform as the injectable COVID-19 vaccine by the same manufacturer — pieces of genetic material transported by a harmless adenovirus vector so the body can be trained against the virus.
- This vaccine, however, is inhaled through the mouth as a fine mist.
- The needle-free vaccine is the first approved of over 100 oral or nasal vaccines currently in development around the world.
- Health authorities hope that administering vaccines through the nose or mouth could prepare the immune cells of the thin mucous membranes there, preventing the spread of even mild cases of the illness by killing the virus as it enters the body.
What are Viral vector vaccines?
- Viral vector vaccines use a “vector virus,” which is a harmless, modified version of a virus that does not cause COVID-19.
- Viral vector-based vaccines differ from most conventional vaccines in that they don’t actually contain antigens, but rather use the body’s own cells to produce them.
- The vector virus delivers important instructions to our cells on how to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19.
- Viral vector COVID-19 vaccines cannot cause infection with COVID-19 or with the virus used as the vaccine vector.
- The genetic material delivered by the viral vector does not integrate into a person’s DNA.
- Besides being used in vaccines, viral vectors have also been studied for gene therapy, to treat cancer, and for molecular biology research.
- Some vaccines recently used for Ebola outbreaks have used viral vector technology, and several studies have focused on viral vector vaccines against other infectious diseases such as Zika, flu, and HIV.
(Sources: Live sciences and CDC)
