Six months after the publication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequence, a record number of vaccine candidates were listed, and quite a number of them have since been approved for emergency use against the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This unprecedented pharmaceutical feat did not only show commitment, creativity and collaboration of the scientific community, but also provided a swift solution that prevented global healthcare system breakdown. Notwithstanding, the available data show that most of the approved COVID-19 vaccines protect only a proportion of recipients against severe disease but do not prevent clinical manifestation of COVID-19. There is therefore the need to probe further to establish whether these vaccines can induce sterilizing immunity, otherwise, COVID-19 vaccination would have to become a regular phenomenon. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants could further affect the capability of the available COVID-19 vaccines to prevent infection and protect recipients from a severe form of the disease. These notwithstanding, data about which vaccine(s), if any, can confer sterilizing immunity are unavailable. Here, we discuss the immune responses to viral infection with emphasis on COVID-19, and the specific adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and how it can be harnessed to develop COVID-19 vaccines capable of conferring sterilizing immunity. We further propose factors that could be considered in the development of COVID-19 vaccines capable of stimulating sterilizing immunity. Also, an old, but effective vaccine development technology that can be applied in the development of COVID-19 vaccines with sterilizing immunity potential is reviewed. Graphical Abstract ga1
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Coronavirus disease 2019, RBD, receptor-binding domain, Antigen, sterilizing immunity, reverse vaccinology, IFN, interferon, Adaptive immune response, WHO, World Health Organization, SARS-COV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, LNP, Lipid Nanoparticles, ADV, adenovirus, PAMPs, pathogen-associated molecular patterns, TLR, toll-like receptors, URT, upper respiratory tract, APC, antigen-presenting cells, DC’s, dendritic cells, ILC’s, innate lymphoid cells, PRR’s, pattern recognition receptors, NF- κB, nuclear factor κapa B, ISGs, IFN-controlled genes, CXCL10, Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 10, Th1, T helper 1, Th2, T helper 2, PSO, particle swamp optimization, IgA, immunoglobin A, IgG, immunoglobin G, IgM, Immunoglobin M, NA, nucleic acid, IVV, inactivated viral vaccine,