A Comprehensive Review on the Current Vaccines and Their Efficacies to Combat SARS-CoV-2 Variants

• Published in: Vaccines (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 10; p. 1655
• Main Authors: Rabaan, Ali A, Mutair, Abbas Al, Hajissa, Khalid, Alfaraj, Amal H, Al-Jishi, Jumana M, Alhajri, Mashael, Alwarthan, Sara, Alsuliman, Shahab A, Al-Najjar, Amal H, Al Zaydani, Ibrahim A, Al-Absi, Ghadeer Hassan, Alshaikh, Sana A, Alkathlan, Mohammed S, Almuthree, Souad A, Alawfi, Abdulsalam, Alshengeti, Amer, Almubarak, Fatimah Z, Qashgari, Mohammed S, Abdalla, Areeg N K, Alhumaid, Saad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.10.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Adenoviruses; Antibodies; Clinical trials; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; CRISPR; Disease transmission; Evaluation; Human populations; Immune response; immunity; Influenza; Measles; Mutation; mutations; Nanotechnology; Plasmids; Proteins; Recombination; Respiratory diseases; Review; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; siRNA; vaccine; Vaccines; Vectors (Biology); Viral diseases; viral variants; Viruses; Saudi Arabia; United States > US; Europe; Africa; SARS-CoV-2; vaccine; mutations; immunity; viral variants
• ISSN: 2076-393X; 2076-393X
• DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10101655

Since the first case of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 infection has affected many individuals worldwide. Eventually, some highly infectious mutants-caused by frequent genetic recombination-have been reported for SARS-CoV-2 that can potentially escape from the immune responses and induce long-term immunity, linked with a high mortality rate. In addition, several reports stated that vaccines designed for the SARS-CoV-2 wild-type variant have mixed responses against the variants of concern (VOCs) and variants of interest (VOIs) in the human population. These results advocate the designing and development of a panvaccine with the potential to neutralize all the possible emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2. In this context, recent discoveries suggest the design of SARS-CoV-2 panvaccines using nanotechnology, siRNA, antibodies or CRISPR-Cas platforms. Thereof, the present comprehensive review summarizes the current vaccine design approaches against SARS-CoV-2 infection, the role of genetic mutations in the emergence of new viral variants, the efficacy of existing vaccines in limiting the infection of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, and efforts or challenges in designing SARS panvaccines.