Novavax, ancient technology for the new vaccine

A traditional technology for the new anti-Covid vaccine just authorized by the European Medicines Agency (Ema).

Marketed under the names of Nuvaxovid and Covovax (in India), the latest immunizer to hit the market is a protein vaccine, i.e. it contains laboratory-made fragments of the Spike protein, which is found on the surface of the Sars-CoV virus. -2, and an adjuvant, saponin.

    Unlike the Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sputnik vaccines, which use mRNA and viral vector technologies, the one produced by the US pharmaceutical company Novavax is not a gene vaccine and was created through the technique of recombinant proteins. A technology already widely tested since the 80s for example against hepatitis B.

    NVX-CoV2373, this acronym, like any other vaccine, has the aim of stimulating the immune system and making it produce a response against the aggression of a external agent.

    It is composed of protein fragments of the virus starting from the introduction in a 'baculovirus' (virus emptied of its genetic content) of a portion of DNA with the information useful to produce the Spike protein.

At a later stage, some cells are infected by the virus and when the material is inside, the baculovirus releases the genetic material useful for the production of the Spike.

Protein which, after being produced, is released outside the cells.

Viral nanoparticles contain up to 14 Spike proteins, plus an adjuvant that stimulates the immune system.

    An engineering, that of Novavax, completely different from the mRna technology (Moderna and Pfizer), which instead consists in the injection of an Rna fragment that serves to produce only the Spike protein.

    The protocol of the new vaccine provides for the administration of two doses 21 days apart, the immunizer remains stable between two and eight degrees.

When it is inoculated, the immune system is activated and reads the protein particles as foreign: at this point it begins to produce natural defenses by activating antibodies and T and B lymphocytes.